Never Separated
by QueenofCellos
Summary: But though all these portraits had voided eyes, they continued to stroll to the entrance without second thoughts, instead they kept in mind the future that was to come. For one, was a future of good. For the other, was a future of evil. History would always repeat itself once more, as it always did. The question was: In whose favor would history be this time?
1. An Undecided Fate

**Chapter 1: **An Undecided Fate.

_Yawn. _Tsukune stretched, scratching his head restlessly.

He'd been driving for roughly 32 hours, without a break, well maybe a few quick pit stops here and there but other than that nothing else. Only miles and miles of road.

His cellphone rang, vibrating on his lap. With one hand on the steering wheel, he reached down and picked it up. He brought the screen up to his face and saw that it was a text message. The vampire bluntly, stared at the notification on the screen. Tsukune had texted Gin earlier, and now, he had responded to his previous text.

_So they finally gave you a big break, huh?_ The text message read.

Tsukune swallowed allowing his dry mouth to moisten up again. He'd been sent to one last mission by his father before he could finally stop doing _activities_ for the vampire society. Even though he knew that could be impossible. Tsukune needed to get to his destination, no matter what. It was required.

He was already imagining Gin, laughing in a very cocky manner. Probably even bragging about how much of a better soldier he was than him, since he was sent away. Competition like it always was, knowing Gin's perverse nature, he would use it to pick up the female employees.

Tsukune's car went to a leisure halt as the light turned red on the road in front of him. And in just couple miles in front of him, was the infamous tunnel to different dimensions. It was a tunnel with overgrown weeds hanging on the sides. It looked mystical, and the effects of total darkness, didn't help that.

He took the chance and replied back to Gin before the light had the chance to change back to green.

_Have you gathered any information about this mission? _Tsukune had replied back to Gin, in hopes of getting any information that he didn't have.

Ever since he got this mission he couldn't help but feel annoyed, as if there were something wrong. There was something eerie about a vampire lord requesting his presence in the middle of operations. But whatever the lord says, goes. Even if it meant halting whatever you're doing to be summoned to his highness.

Tsukune just wanted to hear the details about what he was going to do, so that he could just get over with it and go home. He was very tired, and who could blame him for being grumpy?

His father was never the best guy to fill him in on missions, he just told him what to do and he would do it. Even if it meant killing innocent people in the process. It was the cruelty that came along with being part of a family that had strong ties with Fairy Tale, not only that, but also being a type of vampiric blue blood.  
None of that was truly important to him.

The stoplight changed to green, and he shifted the gear to drive, and warily stepped on the pedal. Soon enough, he was inside the tunnel, there was a variety of shining lights on the walls that later, blurred into a streak the faster he drove. The speed and the sounds that were blocked away from the black jeep he was driving, made it seem as if the vehicle were in some sort of protective bubble.  
He felt the need to puke all over the car right then and there, but, he held it in knowing that if he did one small thing wrong, he would end up somewhere else. Somewhere much more dangerous than where he was ever going. And he was not in the mood to drive more hours into the night, just to reach a city. He rested his right hand on his stomach and drove with his left. He wasn't all that sure he would reach the end of the tunnel with all of the force and power that surged through, without throwing up. All the different flashing colors that kept appearing at once, made him dizzy.

If Tsukune had known all of this was the effect of him not sleeping throughout the drive, he would have taken more breaks, just to rest in case of something like this.

He had felt his stomach drop cold and it didn't stop, until he reached the end of the tunnel. Its piercing white light hit his face making him squint, and relax enough that he was able to push down the feeling of throwing up all over his seat. The vampire shook his head, trying his best not to think much about the drive. He hadn't noticed the cold sweat running down his face until a drop fell onto the seat, soaking the velvety material. Tsukune watched with the corner of his eye as the droplet disappeared in the seat. He took his hand off his stomach and wiped the rest of his forehead to prevent the remainder of his sweat from dripping down on to the seat, then he rested his hand back down across his stomach.

His phone rang again, another text. And since there was nothing but a straight road with grassy fields accompanied with an astonishing amount of trees, he picked it up.

_Sorry, can't tell ya, man! Y'know I love ya and all, but I was ordered to keep it quiet by the big guy. Count Shuzen will explain everything once you're there._ Gin had sympathetically sent an apologizing emoticon. _See ya!_ He said, quickly ending the message.

Tsukune could only scoff in discontent, he quickly shrugged it off and continued driving in the empty road with the slowly darkening sky, that seemed to carry rainclouds.

If not even Gin could say anything then it must be an important task. He wasn't sure what to expect when he got there but, as any operative he would have to be on his best behavior, do what he was expected to do, but most of all… keep his mouth shut.

If all went well this day would be short. If not it would be painfully long.

The young vampire felt as if the road was never going to end, he had already been inside the dimension for about 5 minutes, but it had felt like he'd been there for hours.

The Shuzen Manor was not only miles deep into the dimension, but also miles long, it had been a house for all vampires for as long as Tsukune could remember.

He had never seen a castle larger than this one, of course he'd been in more than a few castles in his lifetime due to his family connections and missions. But this one, was by far, the largest, and fanciest of them all.

The Shuzen castle seemed to blow every other castle away. It was like a heavily armored fortress except, instead of weapons, it was full of blood-thirsty vampires.

To describe just the Shuzen name would be just like playing a deadly game of chess. This family would brutally knock out every single piece in its way until... Checkmate, and the battle was won. And there was blood, but with vampires there's always blood. It always flowed like a stream would in a river, endlessly.

It would be suicide for someone to even become a threat to such a powerful household. The Shuzen family had ties to all types of places in the world, from the most commonly known, to even the least known ones, nothing could escape Lord Shuzen and his army.

But it wasn't just the monsters, hiding about, and being controlled by Lord Shuzen.

The endless forest around the castle was a labyrinth filled with life-threatening booby traps, killer mutant trees, and famished hell-hounds, legends say that nobody has come out of the forest alive nor have they ever tried to step a foot in, because they either get lost or they are killed and never found again.

It was a theory he had wanted to test since he was a boy, but never got to find out.

He glanced at the castle from the distance, it seemed tiny now. The memories of the place were so fuzzy to him. Exactly, what was the reason for his nervousness? He knew he had been there before as a small child, he remembered only that. There was something inside him, that was eating him away, gnawing at his insides, but he couldn't tell what it was.

He approached a pair of black, iron gates, they were almost too overwhelming in size and to add on, there were black arrowed spikes on the top, to protect from any intruders that would dare climb or fly over. Tsukune immediately noticed small sentences on the iron bars of the fence, there were red runes encrypted all over the metal, and fortified in an ancient tongue he didn't know. But, what he did know was that it knew who to let in because the dark gates were now opening.

**X **

"He has arrived, m'lord." Said a deep voice that hummed as it spoke words.

"Wonderful." Issa replied in a cold tone. The sound of his voice would send shivers through thousands of people. And Issa Shuzen's crooked smile was all it took to let everyone know that there was something eventful bound to happen at any time.

A smile was rare enough.

"Welcome him, as he is like a son to me."

Everyone nodded as the count took a stand from his throne. All eyes were set on him as they followed every step he took down the aisle, as if he were a god. A dark god from a much darker heaven.

And in that house, that was exactly what he was to all of them, he was their commander and they were his subjects. If the count desired something, it would be given to him, just so that he would be pleased. They knew that he wouldn't accept no as an answer. He would take what he wanted, he would destroy what he didn't. Issa Shuzen was not a humble person. But, he was strong and to be feared.

Issa was nothing but a raging storm, his empty thirst never to be quenched.  
It wasn't until Akasha came along and grabbed Issa by the collar, leading him into her world. Which made him change entirely, nobody would believe it, but, their kings, ice heart melted away only by an ancient vampire that was rescued from inside of Alucards slumbering corpse. Was it possible?

It was crazy, but it had happened, and everything turned out well, for them and their leader, everything was good… for now.

Everyone rejoiced, and when Issa announced that they were having a baby, nothing could make them happier, than the fact that their love had blossomed into a child.

They called it the prodigy child, Akashiya Moka, that was her name and she was the pride of the entire family, she was the family's greatest treasure and she would grow up to be just like Akasha.

A shinso, only two of their kind.

**X**

Everybody was in high spirits, except for the counts wife, Gyokuro Shuzen.

Issa's infidelity triggered something inside of her that she had tried to hold in for centuries. All of her life, she had tried everything to gain his attention, and nothing worked.

As they say, a woman's heart can change in three seconds.

And after endless years of trying to gain his love, she locked herself inside her lab, studying and testing anything, that would help create plans to control him, and all of his love.

That was all she had ever asked for, love.

She secluded herself from the family, her children, and her husband.

Every second that passed, her anger towards Akasha grew stronger, and she intended to do whatever it took to destroy Issa's and Akasha's love towards each other, and that bastard daughter she conceived with **her** mate.

It wasn't even that long ago that she had finally shown herself. And the reaction she had gotten from everyone was just what she wanted, awe, and an understanding of a queens power. And now, she trailed behind Issa Shuzen's steps. She was the wife of an all powerful vampire lord, and Akasha, the mistress of the great lord, she would destroy.

Gyokuro Shuzen's face seemed permanently carved with a sadistic smirk, and her taunting ruby eyes reflected the same emotions on her lips. They flickered with pride and excitement, like a child, eagerly awaiting to get her hands on a toy.

With an iron hand on her hip, she swayed with every clicking step her black silhouettes made up against the ancient walls of the castle. Being a countess was a waltz she learned how to dance when she had secluded herself from life.

Gyokuro had worn a black, skin tight, leather dress. It outlined her curves only to show a figure so perfect, that it would put most women to shame. She wasn't afraid to show what she was proud of; the gold trims around the dress only enhanced her radiating queen-of-the-pride demeanor. She played her part perfectly, nobody could tell her otherwise. Topping everything off, she wore a heavy military-like jacket over her shoulders. Everything, about Gyokuro Shuzen was menacing and vicious. She wore her image freely, like a cape which was flaunted about her, and it had shown what she had become. A strong queen fitting to the side of the king. She enjoyed playing the part of the empress she was born to be.

**X  
**

The large doors had opened for them, leading them to a long hall that revealed many portraits of deceased ancestors that had brought light to the family name. They all resembled people with elegance, grace, and each picture showed the destruction of the vampires, but that wasn't the only thing they showed, it was a reminder of the true nature of the world they lived in. The same world they lived now, was the same that those people in the portraits lived once in their lifetime.

They resembled the monstrosity of both humans and monsters.

They resembled the history of many stories throughout the centuries since the beginning of time.

They were pieces of life that were drawn to capture every moment.

But though all these portraits had voided eyes, they continued to stroll to the entrance without second thoughts, instead they kept in mind the future that was to come.

For one, was a future of good.

For the other, was a future of evil.

History would always repeat itself once more, as it always did.

The question was: In whose favor would history be this time?

**Authors Note:**

_I'm sorry for being on hiatus for years. I have had writers block. ;_; _

_Also, I will go back and edit this if needed. _

_More updates will be coming._

_Lots of credit to my wonderful friend _Layla (_**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**__)__ for helping me get through my awful writers block, and editing my story._

_Hope you enjoyed._

See you soon.

**- Queen of Cellos**


	2. Recipe for Disaster

**Chapter 2: **Recipe for Disaster

Akua Shuzen danced her way across the palace, her hands swayed elegantly next to her sides. Her fingers hung limply, letting her pretty, long nails dangle. Her daring Chinese dress floated around her legs, with the little steps she made, letting her pale thighs become visible to the world. And she did so, without a care. Her skin was like a porcelain dolls', untouched, never meant to be taken out of its case.

The brightness of her dress made her even paler, with the red cloth and the golden dragon that spiraled about her, gave her the look of a goddess. Her lips were a ruby red, and her eyes violet, like the flowers that bloomed in the spring. The aura Akua gave off as she walked down the empty corridors, gave the feeling of superiority and strength, that was nearly unbeatable. But only that strength could be bested by Akasha.

Akua walked to the balcony slowly, taking long strides, as if to show off her elegance to the empty walls of the castle. The balcony had white french doors with windows that were framed by red curtains that hung by them, giving the room a classical look that would never age.

Akua delicately placed her hand on one of the silver, curved handles on the balcony doors and slowly pulled them in towards her. Letting a small gust of air hit her face.

She walked on to the balcony, looking straight ahead. Another fresh breeze blew into her, pushing her thin, feather like locks slightly away from her shoulders and pressing her dress against her skin.

Akua walked to the edge of the balcony, and looked down over the stone railing. A narrow smirk crossed her face as her eyes caught something moving down on the ground. She had noticed that a little mouse had gotten its way onto the castle grounds. He seemed to be rattled, almost as if worms were crawling under his skin from the expression he gave off.

Akua leaned closer, pushing most of her weight on the ledge to lean on her elbows. She placed a palm on her red tinted cheeks. Her gaze seemed distant, and lonely, but wasn't all she ever wanted, here? Her family was here. Moka was here. And Akasha... Where was Akasha? She hadn't been seen in a couple months, but that was something that was common for the past couple years that she had been living in the castle. Akasha always tended to run off somewhere, and always came towards the things that needed to be fixed. Like a tool searching for a greater purpose.

_Now, __who is this little mouse that has wandered into my home?_ Akua thought to herself, snapping back to reality. Her violet orb like eyes watched as the figure fully stepped out of the vehicle, only to turn back to the car to retrieve a black leather jacket. He pulled it over his shoulders, slowly, taking his time to put it on. Then, he straightened the jacket with one pull at the bottom, and glanced directly in Akua's direction, meeting her eyes. Her grin widened. A buzzing feeling was pushed into her chest. _Something, is going to start. _She thought to herself. Akua kept her eyes on him watching whatever he did.

This little mouse was very serious. His face showed no more expressions of nervousness nor happiness, he was grim, and ready to serve to the looks of it.

This little mouse wasn't lost. Instead it was heading towards the castle, treading carefully on the ground as if to avoid landmines.

"Father must have something planned." She commented aloud to herself while putting a strand of hair behind her ear. Akua's eyes followed him across the garden into the pasture. Someone spoke behind her. She hadn't realized anyone there, that was her mistake.

"Really?" A sharp, giddy voice behind her questioned.

Akua looked back at the person calmly to hide her alarm, it was Kahlua, her younger step-sister. She was a tall girl with olive colored skin and red eyes. She wore a pair of pink pajamas with bunny prints and bunny slippers. Akua looked down at her hands and noticed that she was carrying some sort of disfigured creature, that looked like a bunny that was dragged through a field of barbed wire and dipped in a can of tar, then forcibly placed in a washer, in attempt to remove permanent stains. Akua then looked back up to look at Kahlua's face. Kahlua was calm at the moment with a small curious glint in her eye as she looked at Akua, waiting for an answer.

Some things that are said about the sisters were true, but the most commonly known was that they became ridiculously powerful once they snapped. But there stood the two of the most powerful younger vampires in their era, facing each other, and calling themselves sisters. Which was true. They were sisters, step-sisters. It was as if a dragon were staring into a lions big, beady eyes, there stood the Black Devil and her un-killable younger sister without any intent of fighting.

But there was something inside Kahlua that scared all of the sisters. It was her obedience towards her mother, the way she used her tears as a weapon, and the way she never seemed to grow up. But she was brutal. You could say that all of the sisters had inherited at least one similar trait from their father. Inside them, burned that raging storm that allowed them to achieve whatever they set their minds to do.

"It seems like it." Akua had nodded, turning back around to look at the ground, past the garden toward the entrance. _It's a really far distance, he must be around Moka's power level to be able to detect me from that far._ Akua thought to herself. "We're having a guest soon." She spoke aloud to Kahlua to break the silence. _But, why is a mouse entering our house? _Akua thought to herself._._

Akua turned around to face the door and began to walk back inside. Kahlua still stood out on the balcony the closer she got to the door. She was leaning over the edge in the same place Akua did as if to search what she was talking about. Akua continued to walk out of the room quiet enough, just to make sure that Kahlua wasn't following her.

She'd go to Moka's room, to kill some time, have a nice talk. Moka was the only person that could understand her in this world, a world where she was a stranger to herself and the people around her. Another quiet child hiding secrets beneath that mask she wore.

Akua walked quickly through the seemingly endless corridors. Her body made several silhouettes against the wall, with the numerous windows lining the walls and the dim light shining through them. Akua looked outside and noticed the sky darkening quickly, with a wall of rain approaching the castle. The sound of thunder boomed in the distance.

The dark skies had somehow managed to reflect the churning in her stomach, she felt so.. sick. Maybe she was coming up with a cold, which wouldn't really stop her from doing anything. In reality she couldn't place her finger on it, but she was raised to ignore those small things. The things that didn't matter. Survival was what mattered, and talking about survival, this rain would prevent anyone inside the castle from doing barely anything. She softly giggled. What was she thinking?

When she reached the portion of the palace where Moka's room was, Akua tilted her head to look in. She could hear a muffled voice that seemed to be Kokoa. With her ranting voice that seemed to always bring more noise than needed. It seemed that Kokoa wanted to spar while Moka was rejecting her offer knowing that it would be useless and she would beat her in a matter of seconds. Once she felt a rise of volume in Kokoa's voice she walked in, instantly clinging onto Moka with her arms wrapped around her waist, surprising both of them.

"Akua-ne?" Moka squeaked, startled by Akua's entrance. Moka wore a pair of camouflage shorts and a black tanktop with a camo jacket overtop. There was a clear blush on her face which matched the bright red color of her eyes. Akua glanced over to Kokoa, she sported a runny nose, clearly bleeding from one of Moka's hits.

Akua placed her chin on one of Moka's shoulders, grinning at the youngest of the sisters. Kokoa's eyes dropped to the floor. Her green eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips in anger and frustration. Her hair was tousled, clearly, when she had woken up, she had raced over to Moka's room just to spar the poor girl.

"Akua-onee sama." The redhaired girl spoke through gritted teeth, clenching her fists tight enough that the knuckles on her hands whitened. She raised one hand and pointed at her accusingly. "How dare you lay a hand on _**my **_Moka-onee sama!" Kokoa raced at her, which made Akua let her grip on Moka's waist go, gently tossing her aside on to Moka's pretty iron bed, to avoid the injury of the only sister that understood her. Akua laughed playfully.

"You've gotten slightly better, little sister!" Her compliment rang in the redheads head, making her more furious. She would definitely get better and defeat her sisters… eventually.

"Let's spar, Akua-onee sama!" Kokoa yelled out in her naturally loud voice.

"You should be careful, Kokoa." Moka chided. She was now sitting on her bed with crossed legs, softly warning Kokoa. Even a fighter like Moka couldn't beat her older sister, Akua.

Akua just stood straight, hands at her side waiting for Kokoa's tense form to give up, she was just too easy to read. If Kokoa was beaten by Moka in a second just with a roundhouse kick just imagine what would happen if Akua sparred with her. She would probably become a pile of bones. Kokoa retreated, giving it thought, and knowing that Akua wouldn't even have to use her bare hands to beat her.

Akua walked towards the window, placing a palm on the window on the far side of the room, away from the door. She let her eyes trail outside into the rain, watching the droplets softly hit the glass.

"Tomorrow I'll spar with you, Kokoa," Akua politely offered with an edge of bluntness, "If you can land a single hit on me, I'll let you live." The room grew darker. She could feel Kokoa's growing anger in the background.

"You're joking, right?" Kokoa asked with a nervous smile, the tone in her skin leaving her as white as a sheet of paper. Which made her hair stand out like roses.

"Aiya~" The eldest sister stretched her arms, winking at Moka. Moka's body responded with a tremble which she covered up by looking the other way. "Am I joking, little sister?" Akua asked in a dark tone, with a small hint of a tease in her voice.

Kokoa's eyes dilated while Akua's owl eyes became black holes. The elder siblings' face remained a grim, and deadly serious, while Kokoa had tears threatening to fall down her cheeks. Moka sighed unhappily.

A servant knocked on the door. All three of them paused to listen to the sound before doing anything.

"You may enter." Moka said in a quiet voice enough for the person outside to hear. After he was given permission to enter he walked inside and bowed respectfully, glancing at all sisters to gain their acknowledgement.

"Your father requests all of your presences, m'lady." Moka nodded and looked back to her sisters, only to have them stare back into her own eyes, Kokoa's brimming with curiosity, while Akua watched calmly.

Akua looked back at the window having her own thoughts. The sky had darkened and it began to rain harder. _This has become entertaining..__  
_

Boy, was Moka relieved that the ice was broken between the three. Kokoa still stood looking scared and surprised. But, she had brought this upon herself... She did want to brawl with Akua. And Akua barely held back against anyone.

"We'll be down soon." Moka told the man as she began undressing in the center of the room where all her sisters could see her. The man quickly left with his eyes dug on the ground, careful not to lay an eye on her body or else his eyes would be gouged.

"I'll be taking my leave." Kokoa announced first, barging out the door. Akua genuinely smiled at Moka as she followed behind Kokoa with a hum.

The sisters already knew this routine, by the time Moka had entered the bathtub her two sisters had left to get ready themselves.

**X**

Tsukune continued toward the building. The heavy doors seemed to drag themselves open the closer he got. Behind them revealed the pair of vampires who he identified as Gyokuro, and Issa Shuzen.

It had been the first time that Tsukune had met the well known duo, or even to have contact with them face-to-face. Tsukune never met the clients that were sent to him personally, but since this was the Count, it was like a sort of closure, to be able to trust each other.

"My lord, you have sent for me?" Tsukune asked before he kneeled in front of Issa to show his respect. Issa silently nodded in response, looking at Tsukune's eyes, carefully analyzing them. Issa motioned his arm towards the entrance of the dark castle behind him, giving Tsukune a curiously eerie feeling. Tsukune let his eyes trace whatever he could see on the inside of the building. It was dark in the entrance room, with barely any source of lighting, except for a few stray torches that lined parts of the wall to give some light.

"Shall we? You're getting wet." Issa said to Tsukune, and just as he did, it began to rain a little bit harder. Tsukune rose from his kneeling position and slowly walked in behind Gyokuro and Issa's slow footsteps.

The room inside was marvelous to Tsukune. As amazing as it was outside, it was better inside. The walls had several paintings of scenery with vampires in the background. A red carpet covered part of the floor that was made as a pathway. The rest, was marble in light shades of grey. The walls were a soft velvet color, like the color of spilt blood. Tsukune was pretty sure that it was real, no doubt about it.

Tsukune noticed that no furniture was in the room, other than a large chair that was embroidered with rose and thorn metal work. _Probably Issa's chair._ Tsukune thought to himself.

Issa had walked up a spiral staircase that disappeared into a dark corridor. Tsukune couldn't do anything to object, and obediently followed after. He walked to the end of the dark corridor and walked into a room that looked like a study that his highness probably used. Issa was standing near the entrance, awaiting for Tsukune, with Gyokuro nearly glued to his side.

Issa turned to Gyokuro and demanded that she stayed outside, before entering the room he placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. She smiled at him gracefully, and turned to leave, from her pocket she retrieved a phone which she put to her ear.

"You're here on an important task, Tsukune." Issa walked behind his desk and sat on a leather chair, his hand pointed at the pair of seats in front of his desk. "Sit."

He did as he was told, and sat in front of the dark wooden desk and placed his hands on his lap camly. "Sir, may I ask a question?" Tsukune asked carefully.

"Sure." Issa said plainly. Issa didn't seem to be using too many formalities since they became alone.

Tsukune straightened his jacket and rested sweaty palms on his knees, "This task." He swallowed as he began nervously. "Could this task not be easily completed by one of your children?"

Issa froze, his deadly eyes met up with Tsukune's."Tsukune, this task requires more than my daughters' participation, it requires people with brains and loyalty. I would never entrust someone with something that requires such care."

Issa leaned forward in his chair, resting his clasped hands on the desk, his aura became dark and his face became masked with a shadow. He grabbed a piece of paper from the desk and pushed it forward. It was a type of letter. Tsukune picked the note up, and read through it.

Tsukune chuckled as he read the paper. _Seriously?_

"Lord Issa, this must be some sort of prank, right?" But Issa's seriousness told him otherwise. "Oh." He said after, to clear his mistake before something bad happened.

"You will stay here for the time being, son." Issa replied as he scratched the scruff on his face. He opened one of the many drawers on his desk and pulled out two books, they were chapters thick, like large bricks. _Am I supposed to read those?_ "You will read these at least twice, and this." Issa pulled out a file. "The file is from me, and the books are from Akasha."

"Can I refuse?" Tsukune asked, looking down at all of the items, rubbing his nervous hands on his knees.

"You may." Issa replied coldly.

"I see," Tsukune took the books and the file in his hand, he analyzed them, thinking about whether or not he should accept the task.

_Its just marriage.. Nothing more, nothing less. I will be bound with whoever it is for the rest of my life. It is just a small oath I can swear. _

It wasn't that he despised the idea. It was just that it was a strange request, he didn't find himself too young or inexperienced with love, but he'd just been offered something that didn't happen everyday. If he refused then what would happen? He would still be under his fathers wing, doing the things he didn't enjoy, sharpening skills that he wished to forget. He didn't want that.

"I'll do it." Tsukune smiled, giving Issa assurance that he was serious.

Issa grinned. "Don't break your promise, son." He said with a hint of poison in his voice. The picture frame on Issa's desk was now turned towards him. The frame showed an image of four girls, four sisters, they were all smiling whilst they slept peacefully. "You may choose whomever you want." He let out a soft stream of air as he looked back at the picture, then Tsukune. "Choose wisely."

"What?" Tsukune asked, disbelief filtered through into his voice.

"Pick one." Issa said bluntly, like it was a matter of picking chocolates from a box.

The room was quiet for a very long time. Tsukune didn't want to upset the count. It was just that it was hard to choose. He'd never met these girls ever, and to choose one would mean possibly upsetting Issa. Parents might say that they love all their children equally, but they always have a favorite. They always prefer one over the other. That's how it was...

"Hmm..." Issa set the frame flat down. Tsukune was still lost in his thoughts as he contemplated which daughter was the favorite and which one wasn't. It was as if he'd just stopped functioning. "It's settled then." Issa announced standing up out of his chair and walking out the study.

"Huh?" Tsukune jumped in his chair, startled by Issa's words. He was slightly mad at himself for not choosing. He wasn't used to it. Having a choice. It was just doing what he was told, he was just like a lap dog. The young man didn't want to upset the count, a person of high importance with a very busy schedule, everything was timed, but in Tsukune's point of view it looked like he'd done exactly that. But it was different from Issa's eyes, he understood that it would be hard for someone like him to do a task like this.

Issa's cape danced behind him. "All." His husky voice was beginning to disappear into the next corridor. Tsukune quickly got up and followed with his jaw nearly touching the ground. He couldn't verbally make out any sentences. And the only word it seemed that his lips could make out in response was, "What?"

**X  
**

Moka had felt relaxed once her sisters calmed down and had left her room. It got bothersome when something like that happened. Kokoa needed to know her place, and she quietly hoped that Akua would help her realize that tomorrow.

Moka had walked downstairs to the main room and waited in one of the old chairs. It had seemed that their father had summoned them for something. She wore a short black dress that stopped before it could reach her knees, and came out like a flower. From the order she had received, looking nice was an obvious hint that was given. It wasn't every day that she was called down by her father.

She could tell that whatever it was it must've been of high importance, her step-mother, Gyokuro was there, looking like she had just come from a masquerade ball. She had begrudgingly told Moka that her mother would also attend to the calling as well. But, it seemed that she hadn't arrived to the castle yet. It didn't take long for her father to arrive with a stranger on his heels looking quite confused.

Issa paused at the front, looking across the floor to the sisters that were beginning to appear from the shadows. He clapped his hands and all the attention was on him.

From across the room, Akua raised a brow in bewilderment. Moka knew something was up from seeing that expression._  
_

"This is Aono Tsukune." Lord Shuzen gripped Tsukune's shoulder tightly, this was a sign of his trust, a trust which Tsukune could never betray without life threatening consequences. Tsukune bowed respectfully to the Shuzen family.

There was someone missing.. Where was she? Where was _Akasha_. Moka thought to herself, looking around the room. Then she paused.

"Akasha." Almost everyone said in unison as they watched the queen of all that was damned walk into the room. Everyone looked like a deer in headlights.

Akasha Bloodriver looked at each of the girls with her natural warm glance. Everyone had the look of astonishment spread across their faces as they marveled at the beauty of Akasha. The four daughters' jaws dropped as they saw her walk in.

Akasha wore a dark green dress with gold embroidered around the sleeves. She wore her pink hair back with a black bow behind her head. Her dress was short enough that her dress let a small glimpse of her velvety green shoes that seemed to match her clothes. She was the picture of elegance. Much prettier than Gyokuro and was too pretty to compare. Issa's eyes met with Akasha's. Their eyes seemed to sparkle like stars when they met.

_Something is definitely wrong here. _Moka thought as she looked from person to person.

**Authors Note:**

_Well, I hope you enjoyed reading that chapter. I will definitely make up for the all the days I've been absent with more chapters. My goal is to update at least once a week. Thank you for all your reviews throughout all these years, and what I didn't mention in my last authors note is that I've been writing drabbles for the story, and that those little drabbles have helped me improve a lot more since I started this series. Not only that, but your reviews kept me in line, along with the encouragement of my friends, especially_ Layla_ (_**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**_), so lots of credit to them (especially to Layla)._

I will see you soon!

**- Queen of Cellos**_  
_


	3. What Lies Ahead

**Chapter 3: **What Lies Ahead

**PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE READING THE CHAPTER.**

**Authors Note:**

To clarify any misunderstandings about this story please read what I'm about to say down below.

Oniix**, **to respond to your "question", which is more of a rant, **this story is not an incest harem** fanfiction. You're simply jumping to conclusions on a story that hasn't even been finished yet. You claim to be offended by harems yet you come into the Rosario+Vampire fandom not expecting the harem genre? Rosario+Vampire, if you haven't noticed yet, the whole series be it the anime or the manga is a big harem. As said above, to clear your little misunderstanding of the story, there will be no incest. Period. Incest wasn't in any of my plans when writing this story.

Thanks for hearing me out.

**Now the story:**

The four sisters remained quiet as Akasha explained the whole gathering to them. Each of them carrying their own expression of disbelief, accompanied with a strong hint of anger. Akua had her jaw clenched unhappily, Kokoa was looking away at the wall, clenching her fists until her knuckles became white. Kahlua naturally sat blankly looking at Akasha waiting for something for her to kill. Moka hated the burden that had been given to them. Without their own consent, and a thought of their age. Kokoa, being the youngest, and sixteen having to throw her life away already, and get married with the rest. Something that shouldn't be allowed. But, it was. And none of the sisters seemed happy with it.

Tsukune found foul killing intents coming from the quartet, being suppressed, but it was only suppressed to the point where he could still sense the dangerous aura that seemed to darken the room and dampen his spirits. In reality, he understood them perfectly. A surprise betrothal wasn't something he would've wanted either, but when the highest in command asked for you, it wasn't like you could reject such an offer. Without putting your whole life and family in danger.

And as soon as the meeting was over, everyone seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye. Except for Akasha, and Issa. They remained at Tsukune's side, while he sighed feeling the weight that was on him disappear. Somehow, he felt that they understood exactly what he felt.

_That went better than I expected. _Tsukune thought to himself as he let out another sigh.

"Issa, would you please excuse us?"

Akasha stood in front of Tsukune and brushed her hand through his hair reassuringly, even though he was getting married, he was still a young man. In his early years of life, the few years he had to enjoy, but instead of enjoying them he spent them being obedient, and following his orders.

He felt warm and fuzzy inside from Akasha's kind gesture. Tsukune noticed that she had that motherly-sort of kindness, the need to take care of things, and the want to teach. He guessed that after years of so much violence, and seeing such gruesome things she had become soft on the inside, while slowly gaining strength from it as well.

Survival was what made them strong.

Akasha Bloodriver had become the person he so eagerly wanted to be, she was someone he wanted to grow up to be, she was someone he looked up to. A person who kept optimism in mind, but had a heart of realism. Akasha Bloodriver wasn't full of pride, or egotistical. You could say that Akasha was more human than humanity itself.

Issa had gone a while ago, leaving the two of them to conference. Akasha had told Tsukune to sit down in one of the green velvet chairs as she herself sat down across from where he stood, fixing her dress in the process.

"I know it must be hard going through this, Tsukune." Akasha watched as he pulled a chair across from her. He had become quiet with nothing but silence to spare, he kept his thoughts to himself only speaking what was necessary.

Akasha looked down, remembering Moka she was similar to this boy yet so very different. In her own way she would carry on with a facade, but through the years it had seemed that every sister had done so. Akasha had become a mother to all of them while Gyokuro went into isolation, of course Kahlua and Kokoa had hid it from her but when Gyokuro did summon them, they walked with sadness, the glisten in their eyes never left when they turned their head to face Akasha. They had thanked her in their own way for everything she had done, she had become more of a mother to them than Gyokuro ever would be.

"Those books I gave you." Akasha pointed at the bricks. "They will help you as they helped me. I can't tell you much about the girls, except for you to have patience. Polygamy is..." She sighed remembering Gyokuro's devious actions. "Tough." Akasha couldn't put into words how hard it really was dealing with envy and hate all the time. She only wanted the best for her daughters.

Tsukune nodded, understanding her message. In reality he wasn't prepared for what was happening, his previous relationships were with one girl at a time, which he could barely manage. It was never as crazy as marrying four women at one time.

"Issa's girls, they're a special case, but they are still girls. Tsukune, I have trust in you that you will not harm them. Your files, they're obvious that you are not the cold-hearted watch dog they make you out to be. You may be trained like that, but you are not that. You must continue to be strong."

Tsukune was a little bit shocked. "Thank you." He felt a knot in his throat as he swallowed, he rubbed his chin feeling small prickly hairs starting to come in. "I hope I won't disappoint you." His mind went back to his last girlfriend, lets just say it didn't end well. Tsukune let out a very weak laugh that was almost silent.

_I'm not ready for this… at all._

"Do you have any questions?" Akasha asked gently. She put her hands together in her lap.

Tsukune looked at Akasha. Then he remembered that she did have one daughter… he thought at least. "One of the girls is your daughter, right?" He asked as he twirled his thumbs nervously. "Which one is she?" Tsukune asked reluctantly and looked up, he watched as Akasha giggling softly, she took a hand from her lap to cover her smiling lips.

"Don't you think it'd be best if I showed you instead, Tsukune-san?" Akasha said warmly.

"I honestly don't know.." He said meekly, while he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, his head hanging low. _I need a haircut too._ "I don't necessarily think it is a good idea, being with the sudden drop on the marriage and all."

Akasha took her hand away from her smiling mouth and grabbed Tsukune's hand. "Come with me!" Akasha said to him as she pulled him out of his chair and dragged him into one of the corridors.

He felt it, he felt the thunder from the ongoing storm growl at him, telling him to go with a loud push. It was as if Akasha and Issa had already planned this out, way ahead of time, and everything had been done with perfect timing.

This made him wonder how many people have refused Akasha of something she had wanted. And how much blood was spilt for it. He had given in, accepting his fate, what was the point of going to talk to someone who didn't like you?

It wasn't his fault.

And it was certainly unfair.

And he could do nothing about it now.

**X**

A spotlight appeared on Kahlua's tall form, lying on a table. She raised her arm rose above her eyes protecting them from the sudden brightness. This room, she recognized it, it was her mothers lab. Kahlua began sitting up slowly and looked around the dark room for her mother, she could hear drops of water falling into hollow containers. She looked down and noticed a white gown placed on her, a surgery like gown. Kahlua looked back up, then began to strain her eyes to look to one of the corners of the room. Water droplets slowly fell into what looked to be, test tubes. The bubbling sound of heated chemicals from the same corner filled her ears, and the stench of them felt poisonous and made her wrinkle her nose in disgust. The smell was too sharp, and it was beginning to weaken her vision and make her feel light headed. Kahlua brought a hand up to her forehead to steady herself.

_What in the world was that? _She thought to herself in surprise, the chemicals seeping into her head.

"Mother? Where are you?" Kahlua called out, yearning for security that her mother's presence gave her. She slowly stood up, her feet unsteady, and began stumbling forward off the table and into one of the dark corners of the room. Kahlua went deeper and deeper into the unknown darkness of the corner, only to find herself going down old stone stairs that seemed to spiral down. She felt soft patches of moss under her feet. Screams of terror echoed far ahead of Kahlua. She was genuinely afraid to go on. Kahlua hesitated. The air became thinner, and the temperature began to drop the further she went.

There was a familiar smell in the air, it was often that she found herself around it, and once more she had wandered into it. There was blood nearby, as she concentrated on her surroundings, she noticed that it was everywhere, the scent was overwhelming. Kahlua covered her nose and crouched against one of the ancient stone brick walls.

"Mother? Are you in here?" Kahlua's voice sharpened, pleading and questioning.

Kahlua kept walking. The time she spent into walking made the stairs seem like they never ended. And it only seemed to be deeper and deeper into the ground.

After what seemed like hours of walking, at the bottom of the steps, Kahlua saw dimly lit torches lighting a long hallway. The hallways had the same bricks as earlier, but only neater. The floor had a red carpet that seemed to get darker the farther it was. The hairs on Kahlua's neck stood up as a cold breeze blew through the corridor and into her.

She could smell her mother nearby, even with all the blood, her mother's scent was unique. It was a bittersweet smell. That always comforted her, even in moments like these when a good motherly moment could be used.

Kahlua stopped in front of an oak door at the end of the hallway. She swallowed and straightened her posture. Her hand rested on the doorknob in hesitation. Then, she carefully turned the knob and pushed the door open. The space ahead of her an open pit that went down a bit. Kahlua glanced around taking in the scene, then she glanced down. In the middle of the pit sat her mother on a platform, looking back and forth at many flashing monitors.

"Come here, Kahlua." Gyokuro commanded without turning around, as she slowly swung her legs and brought a small glass of wine to her lips. She took a small sip and seemed to be enjoying every moment of it. Kahlua's form disappeared from the door and reappeared next to her mother. She bowed behind her mother. _What is she doing?_ Kahlua thought to herself. "Look at the screen, Kahlua." Gyokuro said in a monotone voice that scared Kahlua a little.

"Yes mother..." Kahlua replied without hesitation. She stepped a little closer to Gyokuro and looked over her shoulder.

On the monitors information waterfalled down the large screens. It seemed to be about the boy her father had introduced to them earlier. And that boy, was supposed to be their mate. It appeared to be that he had more background than it seemed, he had done lots of tasks. He was some sort of soldier, working for monsters all around the world.

Lists of fights and wars appeared on the screen that he had participated in. Kahlua hated anything that involved war, fighting, or killing. Although, when she did it, she didn't have a choice.

The screen suddenly began blinking red, the words 'Error' continuously showing up on the screens, telling them that something was definitely wrong. Gyokuro began quickly typing into a keyboard trying to find a way to get around the notifications, but to no avail. It seemed as if someone was purposely preventing her from looking into his files. Gyokuro set her jaw sideways. A look of annoyance flashed across her face. Gyokuro hissed through her teeth at the screen as she kept typing. The screens suddenly shut off. Then after what seemed to be an eternity of waiting, green lettering appeared on the screen. Making out words.

_Gyokuro Shuzen. _The words typed quickly. _Is it finished? _

"Not yet." She responded to the screen. "I'll have it done soon."

_Finish it._

Kahlua's head whipped to her mother's face. She gave her full attention, and as she spoke, her words trembled a little. "Mother?" She began sweating, questioning the plans that her mother had in her head. "What's this?" The words dragged along in her mouth.

"The future, _darling_. It's **our** future."

**Authors Note:  
**_**  
**__Thank you guys for reading, __I hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
Once again. Lots of credit to my wonderful friend Layla (__**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**__) __bless her.  
__Have an amazing day! _

- **Queen of Cellos **


	4. Collisions

**Chapter 4: **Collisions

"Gin, how does this dress look on me?" San wrote on her notepad and turned it towards him, as she twirled around making the white, and light blue striped dress she wore, hover slightly away from her. Gin smiled a little, the blush on his face obvious. He found himself unable to take his eyes off of her, she was just too adorable for him, just seeing her made his thoughts drift to them running through a field of flowers together.

"Ah, San-chan~" He sighed, wonderless and star-struck. Gin didn't care how stupid or goofy he sounded, he was just too captivated by her beauty to even think about anything else. Of course this didn't last for long. San slammed her notebook on his head knocking him out of his dream world, and bringing him back to earth, to her annoyed expression.

"Gin-kun, pay attention!" She pouted quietly looking away from him. Gin sighed and walked behind her, fixing strands of her hair that were out of place. Then he pushed her hair back carefully so that he wouldn't accidentally pull any of the strands out. Then, he had reached over and grabbed a sunhat from a desk that stood to the right of him. The desk was full of them, nearly overflowing. He had picked the prettiest one he saw and put it on her delicate head. The sunhat was a soft yellow wicker pattern with a black bow wrapping around.

Gin grabbed San's shoulders softly and turned her to the mirror so she could see herself. She blinked, staring at herself from the mirror. Gin leaned down, closer to her shoulder, giving her a soft kiss on the cheek. And in response, she blushed furiously, clearly not expecting the sudden show affection.

"You always look beautiful, San." Gin said, suddenly grabbing her hand and twirling her towards him. San stumbled around, struggling to keep up, almost tripping over her feet and losing a sandal in the process.

"Gin!" She said quietly in a laughing voice, grabbing at his chest to steady herself.

He smiled at her expression she made. "Sorry." He said softly and slowed down.

They had held hands while they walked to the counter to pay for their things. Gin wouldn't say it aloud but, he couldn't wait to just go to the beach. _I bet she looks adorable in her swimsuit! _He had bought her one that looked absolutely stunning on her. A grey bathing suit with white polka dots that seemed to hug her sides so perfectly enough that she looked like a doll. Gin giggled quietly to himself, but kept his manly image on, not letting San get any hint of his amusement.

San nevertheless, noticed his look and tilted her head to look at him. Concerned about his well being, his sanity being the first question in her head. Something about his behavior was off. To her, he was acting more distant than usual. He usually was down to earth when speaking to her, but he was quieter.

Gin glanced down, and noticed San's quiet discomfort and began to explain."I don't mean to rush us out of the store, but I'm just so glad it's finally us alone!" Gin commented aloud, walking ahead of her to the cashier to pay.

"I'll be buying the dress and the hat she has on." Gin said as he pointed at the small girl behind him. The cashier nodded and rung them up. Gin didn't care how much the clothes cost, for San, he would buy anything no matter the price. The wolf confidently pulled his credit card from his pocket and handed it to the cashier before he could even tell him the price. The cashier in response, looked slightly confused but took the card anyways. The teenager behind the counter slid the credit card through the reader only to see a window pop up declining it, he slid it again just to make sure, which just proved that the card was invalid.

"Sir, it seems that your credit card was cancelled." The boy alerted Gin in a monotonous voice, reaching his arm and handing the useless credit card back to him. His eyes had a glint of amusement as he awaited Gin's response from the other side of the register.

"You have got to be joking, right?" Gin raised his voice, almost yelling, clearly annoyed by the kids tone. Shock was clearly expressed on Gin's face.

"Well sir, maybe next time you should bring a credit card that actually has money in it." The cashier

chuckled at the written disappointment on Gin's face, and blew a kiss at San. "Hey, babe, maybe next time you should go out with a guy who actually has money. How 'bout you leave this joke?" He licked his lips and nodded his head at the now furious wolf. "And we go out on a date once I get off work? I promise you I'll treat you nice. Even better than he's been treating you." He haughtily winked at her again.

Gin balled his hands into fists at his sides. His shoulders seemed to go up and tense. "**Why you…**" Gin said in a menacing tone that felt like a cool blade pressing against skin.

San's eyes were wide with a mix of shock and awe, she saw Gin start to shake in anger, his knuckles turning white. His rage was adding up so that he was almost to the point of turning into his true form. She went into action quickly. "Sorry, but this 'joke' is actually my boyfriend! I love him either way!" She growled to the boy behind the register and slammed the cash needed to pay for the things on the counter. She rapidly continued to lead Gin out of the store by grabbing his hand and dragging him out in a hurry before he did anything else. But before they left, she turned her head back and gave the young boy a short, yet polite smile. While keeping her eyes on the boy, and pushing Gin, the last thing she saw of him before heading out was the boy hanging his head low and rubbing the back of his head flustered by her. He was guiltily muttering to himself about San, and the last thing he said was; "Maybe I went too far?"

The light from the outside burned Gin's and San's eyes at they walked out. Buildings lining a seaside were all around. Red tiled roofs with many bright colors for bricks. It was beautiful exempting the fact that San was unhappy, as Gin was. The sidewalk lined the sand and downhill, was the ocean. It was a deep blue color from the distance but clear when up close so that all the fish that inhabited could be seen. It seemed to reflect every aspect of the San all around in effort to brighten up the day. But for San and Gin, it only seemed to make it darker in between them.

"Gin, was that really necessary?" San fumed with anger, as she quickly wrote the words on her notepad with bold letters. "You were extremely close to turning! You know that if one small thing happens we'll have to deal with serious consequences, right?" She then began lecturing him about the rules they had learned back at the academy about coexistence, and how he could be in deep trouble if he turned and let his existence be known to the world.

Gin had felt guilty for reacting the way he did, but he really couldn't concentrate on what San was lecturing on about. San had called him her _boyfriend!_ He didn't care that it was a cover to get out of that situation, but it had made him really happy. His mind wandered on the subject until he noticed San squinting her electric blue eyes at him, anger and annoyance bubbling in them.

"Are you even listening, Gin?" San said in an exasperated tone, resting her hands on her hips, hoping to give more emphasis.

Gin blinked a couple of times before saying anything. "Huh? What?" He blankly said, clearly not paying attention to anything San was saying.

"Gin-kun!" San yelled as she balled her hands into fists and began hitting his chest. With every hit she hoped for it to hurt so he could understand that what happened was infact a very big deal. "Pay attention!" She said louder. With every punch she landed it had felt like hitting a large wall made up of bricks. It hurt her fists, but as long as he got the point, it didn't matter.

"Ow!" Gin yelped softly as he grabbed her tiny wrists, stopping her from any more punching. It actually began hurting him a bit, she was quite strong when she got angry. Gin looked down at her as he pulled her wrists up and she looked up at him, her eyes squinted her brows furrowed. They made eye contact without knowing it, but once they realized it made the mood kind of awkward and heavy.

"Maybe I should've stayed with that kid, he'd probably pay more attention to me than you will." San mumbled while breaking her eye contact with Gin. He let go of San's wrists as she said it. San turned away from him, her head turned to the ground.

Gin's jaw dropped as she said the words. Disbelief hit him like an arrow straight through his head. "You can't be serious!" He growled as he pointed back at the store. The cashier was still at the register, but didn't seem to notice their quarreling. "He's an immature little kid!" He voiced out. San's words made him jealous, how would she leave their date for a pipsqueak with no morals like that dumb cashier? He would do way better than that kid would ever do in a date, they've known each other for years! They shared secrets together, even the ones that should never be spoken. They knew what each other liked while off the top of their head, while that kid knew nothing about her. Maybe she did have a point, he'd been focused more on himself doing what he wanted to do with her instead of concerning himself on what she wanted for the both of them.

San turned her face back to Gin and pursed her lips unhappily. "You're the same way, Gin-kun! You can't be saying things like that!" San said as she crossed her arms, her lips forming a tiny frown. _How did such a day go from being happy to being like this? _Gin thought to himself as San sighed unhappily. "Oh, Gin." She said quietly. Her brows furrowed and her eyes beginning to water as she traced where the sand and the sidewalk met with one of her dainty feet. The suns light slightly hurting her eyes from the place they stood. Her fair skin was starting to become pink from the heat and brightness of the outside world.

Gin thought that it was a bit embarrassing, to be arguing in front of a store while people strolled by. Some people would be curiously glancing at them while the weird pair continuously bickered on, and some others just decided to ignore them avoiding anything that would stop them from enjoying their day at the beach.

Gin slapped himself lightly across his face. "San, look at me." He pleaded, feeling the urge to express what he felt. He put his hands against his sides and he leaned down a bit so that he could see her expression easier.

Then he watched as one tear fell down her cheek. "I don't really want to, Gin. I'm upset, and you won't listen." Guilt and frustration pricked at his heart chords more than anything now. San's crying wasn't easy to take in since she was such a kind, polite girl.

Gin took a deep breath before speaking again, he didn't want to take anymore bad emotions out on San that would hurt her more. "I'm listening right now, okay. I'm really sorry, San!" He said as he ran his fingers through his slick, inky black hair. His light green eyes darted from people to people who walked by. They quickly looked away once he met their eyes, giving them a feeling of danger and edginess. Every time he would do this, people seemed to scurry away from his view.

Gin then looked back at San who still had her unsatisfied expression on her face, with her eyes large and ready to have tears spill out of them. "I know I've been thinking about myself this whole time, but I really want this to go well." Gin said to San carefully. "And I'm actually kind of scared to mess it up, which I seem to already have done. But, that was the last thing I wanted to do, and I ended up doing it because I was so concerned about myself and what I wanted to do with you. I had things which I had planned in my head. Yes, my head is in the clouds and that's only because you're around, and finally we're out on a date." Gin released what was left of air and took in a deep breath.

His hands were sweaty but, he continued to clench them in anticipation. "You don't understand how long I've been waiting for this moment, San." He wiped his sweaty palms against his shirt, and grabbed her lithe fingers and intertwined them with his own, his heart began racing. "I lo-"

"San-chan!" A certain crow Tengu ran at them at full speed, his eyes turning into hearts as he focused his eyes on the adorable siren in front of Gin. The way he looked at San seemed that Gin didn't even exist at that moment.

San turned around to see her friend barreling towards her. Her eyes seemed to brighten right as she saw the face. "H-Haiji-kun!" The siren squeaked loudly as the muscular man picked her up from the ground and spun around with her. Gin waited for the flowers to fall from the sky because of the amount of emotion that was being expressed between the two people. Haiji tightly hugged San around her waist, tossing her up in the air a couple times, rejoicing the fact that he had found her (again). Gin loudly cleared his throat a couple times to get the two peoples' attention since the Tengu was all about the loli he was holding. The two spun around a bit more before stopping to look.

Haiji put on an unimpressed expression once he met eyes with him. "_Oh._ It's Gin." Haiji said as he looked at Gin, then he looked at San's face and found an almost dry streak of a water-like substance on her face. San could feel the giant man below her beginning to get angry, his aura suffocating her as it grew stronger and stronger the more he saw the streak. Haiji placed the tiny siren on her feet. Then he turned to Gin, anger flowing off of him in waves. "**Gin.**" He said in a tone that would scare the pants off anyone."**What did you do to San-chan?**"

Gin jumped a little as Haiji spoke his name, he couldn't help but feel the waves of hate from the Tengu coming towards him. Haiji's large frame stood in front of Gin towering over him, his dark eyes dilated, burning holes through his soul as he thought of the many things that Gin could have done to San. He had worn his karate uniform like he always did, so to Haiji he was prepared for any battle. Gin didn't really want to battle, but it didn't seem that he would be let off quite as easy this time because of the amount of anger and destruction that seemed to be flowing from the Tengu. Haiji had his hands crossed against his chest, blood rose to his face flushing his face. His body seemed to grow in form as he began breathing heavily and puffing out his chest. _Is this what Tengu's do to intimidate other Tengu's?_ Gin thought to himself as he looked at Haiji's expression.

"I have already apologized, Haiji." Gin told him crossing his arms, and leaning against the wall trying to play it off cooly, while on the inside, he still felt horrible for what he had done. "We're actually trying to have a date here if you haven't noticed." Gin said to Haiji, staring him into his eyes to give a more menacing feel, which he failed to do.

Haiji raised a brow. "You're not doing a good job of it as it seems." Haiji said in response giving Gin a stronger glare than before. The man seemed ready to shoot into his real form any second. Gin, feeling intimidated, shoved Haiji, making the Tengu take four steps back. Haiji looked down at his uniform where the werewolf had shoved him, and laughed at his weak attack.

"That's all you've got, Gin? Quite pathetic!" The crow Tengu taunted him, wanting to make him pay for what he had done to their senpai. The air around them seemed to grow thicker. Both of the boys egos fought each other for dominance.

Gin heavily swung one of his arms at the crow Tengu, which he dodged with ease. Gin was much slower than Haiji at that moment. His body wasn't as trained as Haiji's and not nearly quite as skilled in human form. Then Haiji suddenly grabbed Gin's whole arm with both hands, he pulled the arm over his head while his was back towards him and placed the arm across his shoulder. He made his left hand free, and then grabbed Gin's shirt and flung him over his own body, judo throwing him onto the concrete sidewalk. Gin's lithe body skidded back a bit, tearing the skin on his arm slightly open.

Gin glowered at Haiji from his spot on the ground, growling as he did. "Haiji, ya' fucking asshole!" Gin yelled at him, pushing himself off the ground and retaliating his throw with another punch, this time finally landing it on him. It made contact with his jaw. Gin grinned hearing a small clicking sound come from the impact. "Ha, got you."

Haiji held his face, feeling around the injury Gin had inflicted. A dislocated jaw as the looks of it. He moved his hand along his jaw and forcefully put his dislocated jaw back in place. Haiji's light gray, spiked hair became messier than it had already been, while his karate uniform had loosened up from both blows he had received. He straightened his uniform up, tightening the black belt which was wound around him that he earned from mastering karate. Haiji examined Gin as he saw him getting worked up for what he saw as nothing. Gin's jaw was clenched as he stood standing away from Haiji waiting for another blow. His knuckles were turning blue and his whole body seemed ready to pounce. The Tengu pointed at the werewolf's hand menacingly, and laughed hysterically.

"You hurt yourself too, bud!" The crow Tengu said as he felt his adrenaline rushing through his veins. Euphoria filled him to the brink, just thinking what else his friend would do to him. Haiji hopped side to side, bouncing on the balls of his feet to keep him light. His fist automatically at his side ready to swing, and his neck bending side to side, cracking in preparation for battle.

"You're mistaken, Haiji." Gin responded with full confidence, only to be interrupted by a tingling pain that came from one of his fists. "Wait a minute. What?" He stopped to look at his right fist, his pinky had been broken and out of place, his eyes widened when he held it in front of him. "You can't be serious!" He said in disbelief. His hand looked like he had a worm taped to the side of his hand a bit too far from where his pinky should have been. Haiji, catching Gin off guard, swung at him once more only to be stopped by San.

In the middle of them stood San once more, like she had done many times when they were back at Yokai Academy, she struggled to keep them from fighting any further. "_Stop._" She commanded in a dynamic voice making both of them startled since her voice was filled with enragement that seemed to make the boys both stop like they were frozen in time. In their duration that they had been with San, she had only used her powers on them a few times to stop them from doing anything stupid, but this time she had done it in public with humans surrounding them. It looked totally unnatural., realizing, she quickly released them from the spell they were bound to. They let their fists fall from their position and all attention was on her.

She was clearly enraged by their idiocy. Her cheeks were flushed a deep red and her lips in a long frown. "I'm leaving!" She glared at them both. "So, both of you go home!" San firmly held the note book in her hands, her knuckles almost turning white from the strength she put in it. Because of the way she had clenched the notebook, the papers were wrinkled or torn but all that mattered was that the point was going across. Which it finally did. And when she was sure they had finished reading her message, she dropped the notepad to her feet and began to walk away.

Both of the men looked stunned as she did, and called after her. "San-chan!" They both called for her in unison but she refused to look back at them. Gin snatched the notepad up from the sand scattered floor, knowing that the small item was of great importance to the Siren. The two men looked at each other and grunted, but began to chase after her.

"This is all your fault, Haiji!" Gin poked his finger into Haiji's chest with every accusing word he said.

Haiji looked down at Gin and glared. "Me? How's this my fault if you're the one who hurt her in the first place, Morioka Ginei!" He retorted back to him. "You dog!"

"Well you're a-" Gin's words were cut short by his phone ringing in his pocket. He turned away from Haiji and put the phone to his ear. He held it with his shoulder while he attempted to fix his broken pinky, by trying to put it back into place.

"Hello?" He spoke into his phone. He hadn't bothered to look into the contact who was calling so he put up a somewhat serious voice that didn't sound like his usual self.

Haiji stood watching him, his arms crossed. He was visibly still a bit annoyed but, he seemed to be getting over it quickly after Gin picked up the phone.

"Gin?" The voice asked for him on the phone. It was low and sounded confused.

The voice over the phone was one that he could recognize any day of the week. "Tsukune?" Gin smiled, surprised by the sudden call. "It's good talkin' to ya', how's everything going on at the Shuzen manor for ya?" His thick Osakan accent came out loudly as he spoke. Haiji rolled his eyes knowing that Gin tries to avoid using his Osakan accent during certain times. But this time, his accent had just rolled out of his tongue from nowhere. Haiji sighed and shook his head.

Gin awaited a response from Tsukune and heard a small voice. "Code: Flight." Tsukune hurriedly told him in a whisper. Gin's had eyes locked with Haiji's in his own profound confusion, he looked at him not really knowing what to say.

Gin turned away from Haiji, to spare himself from the awkwardness that would develop in between them, and stared at the wall. His brows beginning to furrow in concentration. "Are you sure about this, Tsukune?" He pressed the question to make sure he was saying what he thought he was saying.

Tsukune paused before saying anything else. Then slowly began. "Affirmative." With that he hung up and Gin put his phone back into his pocket. Then he turned back around to face Haiji before speaking to him.

Haiji looked over at Gin who stood straight and serious in front of him. "Haiji, we have to gather everyone." He said as he looked around, making sure their surroundings were clear. Haiji then stopped Gin with a strong grip on his shoulder before he began to run off. Gin's eyes were deadly serious meeting with Haiji's.

Haiji raised his brows. "Why? What happened?" He asked confused as he awaited for Gin's reply.

"Seems like our friend is requesting all of us to conference." Gin told him beginning to walk the way San had gone, trying to locate her before they completely lost her. He lifted his face upwards, and sniffed the air a couple of times to pick up her scent. Once it wafted into his nose he began running, Haiji closely following his steps.

"Seriously? Everyone?" Haiji asked in disbelief as he began to race side by side with Gin.

"I wouldn't be telling you if it weren't serious, now start calling the girls." Gin scoffed, but Haiji didn't pay attention it and just continued doing what he was told. Haiji grabbed his phone from his shirt pocket and began dialing away.

Haiji waited as the phone rang then picked up a signal. "Hello?" The muscular man spoke into the phone once the contacts he called picked up, he was relieved to find out that they had picked up their phone in a sudden. That way he didn't hold back the plans. "Everyone, Code: Flight" Haiji said quickly to all the people over the phone, and once he did, the line was dead in a second.

**Authors Note:**

_Hello guys! Sorry for updating this chapter a bit late, but tomorrow the next chapter will also be uploaded so hopefully that makes up for that. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, it's a tender moment between three of most interesting, underestimated(ish) characters I know in this series, and I love that competitive feeling they have when they're gathered, just like the gang. Most of the characters in this fanfiction will be describe as they are described in the manga, so if any suspicions rise about their appearances just refer to the manga. _

_Lots of credit to my wonderful friend _Layla _(_**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**_)__for editing, and helping me write this chapter. It's the longest chapter I've written so far, so hopefully it was worth it._

_Thank you guys for reading this chapter, and I will see you very soon!_

**- Queen of Cellos**


	5. Beneath the Core

**Chapter 5: **Beneath the Core

Tsukune anxiously paced around the halls outside of Moka's room. Akasha had gone inside the room earlier to talk with her daughter. Tsukune had been left nearly half an hour outside of the door, awaiting Akasha. Then, she poked her head out of the room and smiled with an apology.

"Could you meet us in the meeting room once more?" Akasha asked kindly, a sweet smile spread across her face. Tsukune stared at her for a couple minutes, processing her words slowly and dumbly nodded in response to her request. Akasha had given a small smile before she turned around to go back inside of the room to continue her talk with Moka. Tsukune waited a while longer pacing around, getting more and more anxious of what to do. Then, his friends appeared in his head. He waited to make sure that Akasha was inside the room, and wasn't coming out anytime soon, he decided to take the chance to contact his friends to gather and discuss his current situation.

He knew that between them, there would be a lot of talk around, but he'd trust the group enough to keep it between themselves. Tsukune hadn't been told not to tell anyone, nor was he prohibited from doing anything of that sort so he'd figure that it would be best to tell them before something went out of hand. Yeah, it might not have been a big deal to him, but something like this would be important to discuss, it could change his standing in the group forever. He found it strangely eerie, being summoned for such a cause, and to be given such a vague explanation was no excuse. Someway or another he would go out of his way to go to his house, slipping out of the Shuzen's lands couldn't be that hard, right?

Tsukune was lost in thought, he hadn't noticed where he was really walking to until he'd bumped into someone while walking down a staircase. A large clanging echoed down the steps as large, heavy weapons were scattered everywhere. A girl shrieked, as that mini heart-attack feeling sparked when she noticed that the ground was missing below her. In a whim, she grabbed on to the railing and caught her breath. She took a deep breath and put a hand against her chest, as she pulled herself up into a standing position.

"Ugh! Look at what you've made me do." A fiery redhead ranted at Tsukune. Clearly, enraged that all of her weapons that she'd gathered. Kokoa looked back and forth at the ground, weapons from lances to daggers to even bows with arrows were spilled. _Where could she have fit all of these?_ Tsukune thought to himself as he looked left and right from object to object. Then, he looked down from where she had come from, it seemed to have been a long way, the stairs were long and tiring, in fact just by walking up and down these stairs anyone would get their exercise for the day. They seemed to loop around forever the more Tsukune looked at them. All made out of grey and black marble with black ironwork around it. He wondered the misfortune that had to have struck and that all of her hard work, carrying her items with great balance, had gone to waste. _Just so wonderful that she had to run into me._ Tsukune thought sarcastically to himself.

Tsukune put his hand out in front of Kokoa, as if she was supposed to take it. "Sorry." He kindly said, giving a nervous smile to her. He put his hand away when he noticed that she wasn't going to take it. He let it fall in place on the railing to steady himself. "I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going." He continued explaining to the angry red head. Kokoa had a sour expression worse than sour milk. An expression that seemed to tell him that only dissatisfaction was what she saw.

Kokoa raised a brow and harrumphed. She locked her arms across her chest and looked at him. Her green eyes seemed to burn with annoyance when she looked at him. "Good, you know how to apologize. It seems like you do know your place." The corner of Tsukune's lips turned downward. She was being harsh, despite the fact that he had already apologized to her. But she was one of the Shuzen's, she did have a bigger ego which seemed to become hereditary in their bloodline.

Tsukune rubbed the back of his neck nervously, feeling a bit dejected. He felt like retaliating back at Kokoa with a resentful remark that would match hers, but of course, he didn't want to offend her by saying anything that would potentially put himself in a bad spot. Tsukune decided that he would just allow her to have her high moment, as she was younger than him, meaning that this would happen more often.

Tsukune didn't really know anything much about the sisters, but from what he could detect, this one seemed to be the one who snapped the quickest. By now, he assumed all the sisters were at least something like this, but somehow emotional in their own ways.

"I'll help you since it's mostly my fault, it's the least I can do." Tsukune said to Kokoa, trying to put himself on a better side, so he wouldn't be seen quite as badly as the impression he had just placed.

Tsukune watched into Kokoa's eyes as they met with his, they glinted, then she turned away, nodding as a response. Then he realized, her face always seemed to contain the expression of pity, there was no smile, and no sign of any happiness. This girl just seemed sour, as if her whole life she'd been like this without knowing anything else. Thinking about her made Tsukune feel tired and sad.

Kokoa's flaming hair seemed to glow in the shadows, like a lantern that lit the way down a tunnel. But she couldn't be that light that would shine through the dark. She was always bitter and moody, like a storm. But, she was cute Tsukune thought. She was still young so she wasn't exactly pretty, but she still had beauty, nevertheless. Tsukune's eyes looked her up and down as she walked down the stairs to retrieve the weapons. She sort of resembled a strawberry with her green eyes. Those eyes were solid like carved stone.

Tsukune followed after her slowly to help her collect the weapons. She hadn't bothered to help him with picking up any of the weapons that were out of reach. Both of them knew he was at fault. And with that, he took responsibility.

He had to start from the bottom and worked himself up, all the weapons clustered together in his firm arms, with their sharp edges poking into his skin. Tsukune then looked over to Kokoa who seemed to be carrying just as many weapons. Spiked chains and daggers hung off bumping into her legs, making him feel nervous. Even worse, she was wearing small red shorts that covered the top of her thighs, but let the weapons dig into her skin. Tsukune just seemed to wait for one of the weapons to slice correctly and wound her.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere at all, miss?" Tsukune asked kindly as Kokoa and Tsukune walked upstairs, still picking up weapons off the ground. He was really concerned with the fact that she could have fallen backwards on to one of her weapons. Or that he even startled her was concerning.

Kokoa turned her head and placed her head on the other side of the weapons pile. The corners of her mouth upturned at his words. "Hurt?" She laughed heartily. "You're funny, weakling! You bumped into me, it was your all your fault that I dropped all of these weapons." She shifted all the weapons into one hand and with her thumb she pointed at the different types of swords in his arms showing him the danger that he could have caused. Kokoa stopped pointing to the swords and placed her arm back around the weapons. She shifted them upwards on her body so that they wouldn't fall again. Kokoa sighed then continued to speak. "Plus, I'm not hurt, how could I get hurt with such a small fall?" Tsukune gave Kokoa a funny look. She had just fallen a step and she'd almost screamed her entire lungs out, plus she could have fallen on weapons, which clearly wouldn't have ended well. Kokoa hurried up the stairs ahead of Tsukune, then turned around and waited for him. "Come on, this way. I need these to go into my sparring room."

Tsukune raised a brow. "Sparring room?" He questioned, as they began to walking together towards their destination.

Tsukune and Kokoa hurried up the stairs until they reached a flat platform with an old wooden door. It was a small ovular door with an even smaller glass window covered with iron at the top. Kokoa paused to shift the weapons into one of her arms, and opened the doors. She went in before Tsukune did, and once he followed, the door shut behind him.

Kokoa replied with a glare, finally answering his question he had asked on the stairs."Yes, sparring room, it's where I practice for hours. I spend most my time in there trying to gain more power." She flexed her left arm and placed her right palm on the small bump that he assumed was muscle, which nearly didn't exist.

Tsukune looked around. All that he saw around him were corridors. _Isn't this the same hallway I was just in?_ Where Akasha and Moka were talking, or had they passed that place a while ago? The Shuzen castle didn't have any blueprints that were open to the public eye, even the small private eyes weren't allowed to look at it and if they tried they would have zero chance of actually finding something close to a blueprint and of course, they would be prosecuted for trying to do something suspicious. The whole castle was some sort of maze, but it wasn't as intense as how the forest outside was, even the few vampires that were allowed to be housed in that castle got lost sometimes. So yeah, maybe it was a good idea to stay with her, even though she was so grouchy it would be the best thing to do, since she seemed to be the only person around that knew the castle by heart.

Tsukune looked back at Kokoa who was still flexing her nonexistent muscle. "You look pretty strong." He complimented. With just those words, he could feel her ego in her aura grow slightly bigger. Then, he closed his eyes and let his mind soak it in, all the different emotions that seemed to flow from her. She was an open book that a lot of the Shuzen's weren't. "You have great potential, Shuzen-sama." Tsukune said to Kokoa slowly, then he reopened his eyes, dividing himself away from the aura.

Tsukune expected a happy expression from the girl, but in turn, Kokoa narrowed her eyes as if trying to see if he was trying to play any games on her.

Kokoa pursed her lips, tightening her grip on the weapons. "Was that supposed to be some sort of pick up line?" She asked in a tone that felt like rubber against skin. Dry and nasty.

Tsukune felt confused as she asked and in turn he only responded with; "Huh?"

Kokoa raised a brow. "Because that was really bad…" She she began to walk to a farther end of the hallway.

Tsukune sprinted a bit after her, trying to keep in pace with the quick moving red head. "I'm sorry, that wasn't supposed to be anything. It was just that I truly think that you have the potential of getting really strong, it seems that you are around that age where vampires get a boost in power so you'll probably receive it soon." Tsukune said kindly, covering up his own mistake. He kept running after Kokoa until he came in step right next to her.

Kokoa had stopped walking, so he as well halted in front of a large bulky door with iron covering the front which seemed something fortified for protection. Kokoa paused then pushed the door open and walked into a room that did infact look like a room for sparring. The floor was made of wood and was painted with outlines of what looked like a ring to brawl in. To the sides there was barracks full of different types of weapons.

Tsukune spun around once in awe. It wasn't just a sparring room, it seemed to be a training room. There were pieces of rope hung around the ceiling and piled in the corner of the room. Tsukune reached out with one of his hands and tugged on the rope. _Sturdy._

"Where do you want me to put these?" Tsukune asked as he came up behind Kokoa.

Kokoa removed her arms from the weapons and dumped them on the floor. Sounds of metal and wood filled the air as the weapons adjusted to the floor and gravity. "Just put them on the floor, I don't really care where." Kokoa said bluntly before walking to the opposite corner of the room where dummies stood, huddled and prepared to take a beating. Kokoa glanced from the dummies and chose the most ragged one up and dragged it to the center of the room. She seemed to have forgotten all about him by the time she became focused on her spar. She only turned her head when Tsukune dropped the weapons on to hers noisily. "Hey, do you want to spar?" Kokoa turned around and looked at him, with a glint of eagerness in her eyes.

Tsukune sighed unhappily. "I can't right now, I have to be somewhere." He said flatly before walking away from the weapons. "Maybe next time." He turned around to face Kokoa as he spoke. He looked at her again. She wore a black short sleeves shirt with a white logo across it. The shirt was long enough that it covered half of her shorts. The rest of her body was bare, despite her brown hiking shoes she wore on her feet.

Kokoa's eyes sparked as she learned this new piece of information. "Oh." She giggled evilly. "I see, you're just another lapdog of my fathers aren't ya'. You gonna do everything he says now?" She snickered and rested a hand on her hip.

Tsukune looked away from her, and turned to leave the room. "Yes," He confirmed her question. "I will do anything your father tells me to do." Tsukune looked over his shoulder to the ginger and smiled. "He's your father and he knows best." He walked out of the room, silently closing the door after him.

**X**

"Mother I don't wish to be wedded to a stranger!" Akashiya Moka finally raised her voice at her mother, she wasn't about to agree to something as ridiculous as this! She was Moka Akashiya, and she wasn't going to be sent off just like this! She wasn't cargo, she was a powerful shinso vampire and she would get what she wanted, even if it required raising her voice at her own mother. "This is absurd and I will not stand for it!" She said, continuing to raise her voice, with a stubborn expression on her face.

Akasha didn't look to happy at her daughter's reaction. "Moka-chan, please calm down…" Akasha put both hands on her daughter's' shoulders in attempt of calming her down. "What your father says goes, and this is what he has summoned." Moka's whole body seemed to shake with rage at her new knowledge. Her jaw was clenching and her hands were squeezing the bed that they sat on.

She turned around angrily at her mother, she knew that whatever she had to do to get out of the marriage, would be done, but the poor girl was nearly at the end of her rope. "Mother, but doesn't what you say go as well?" Moka sighed, on the verge of defeat. Akasha grabbed her daughters hands and gave them a squeeze, hoping it would help. Her motherly instincts wanted to do this for her daughter, but as Issa's wife, she couldn't it wasn't something that was easily accepted since she wasn't the head of the family.

Akasha looked at Moka sadly, her eyes gentle at her one and only blood daughter. "Moka-chan, it isn't as simple as that." She told her kindly, wishing to quiet down her raging feelings, but she knew nothing work work. It was giving away more than half of her life to a guy she hadn't ever met but only seen.

Moka's eyes began to swell with tears that tempted to fall out. She bit her lip in effort to keep them in."You're supposed to be a Queen..." She said bitterly with a pout, hoping that it would reach her mother's ears enough that she would understand how deeply she didn't want this.

Akasha felt hopeless, nothing she would say would go into Moka's head, but she could do nothing. She was stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Akasha decided only to fight the battle with kind words that would hopefully reflect later in life."Moka, sometimes life doesn't go the way you want it to go. Sometimes we have to do things we don't like, things we aren't used to. I'd rather have you be wedded to Tsukune, than the other suitors that were lined up." Akasha chided kindly to Moka. Sadness filled her chest more and more as she felt her daughters despair. Akasha then sat Moka further up on her bed and then took a seat next to her.

Akasha rested her hand up on Moka's shoulder. "I think we can agree that chivalry beats blind lust. None of you might not ever fall in love with him, but at least he will give you the respect and space you guys want. I can promise you right now that Aono Tsukune will not do anything to hurt any of you." She said kindly for she didn't even know one hundred percent whether that would be the case.

Moka paused for a moment, feeling stunned, then looked up at her mother with large watery eyes. "Mother, you actually approve of this guy?" She said while sniffing.

Akasha sighed then smiled. "Yeah, you caught me. He's actually not bad."

Her daughter looked away from Akasha and stared into an empty corner of the room. "He looks okay." Moka coldly muttered and rested her head against her mother's shoulder.

Akasha got up on her legs, holding Moka's hands. "Come on, let's go I want you to meet him." She urged her, she had practically done the same thing she had done to Tsukune, she had dragged her out of her room and rushed in excitement. In Akasha's head they could become good friends.

Tsukune's profile was filled up of solitary moments, and throughout Moka's life, Akasha hadn't been there all the time for Moka, and neither had Issa which had made her forcefully mature at such a young age. Akasha had felt bad for doing so, but when you're Queen there are sometimes things you just can't do at certain times. It was important for her to go for the fact that it would make the world her children would grow up in somewhat safer and better, but they would be trained for it just incase.

Moka grew up mostly with her sisters, and her sisters became dependent on her as well as she was the most mature and calm about things. She was the eye of the hurricane while her sisters where the storm swirling out of control around her. Moka had been the catalyst that had calmed them down, but it was a duty she enjoyed, it wasn't always the best thing but when she could help mend their relationship as sisters once more it made every second worthwhile.

When they reached the meeting room, it was empty, they looked around the room for any sign of movement or breathing, just anything.

"Did he get lost?" Moka asked while she looked at her mother who stared back just as confused as she was about the absence.

**X  
**

"Are you lost, little mouse?" Akua hummed while she circled the young vampire frozen in place, he turned around, trying to grasp her location by hearing the sound of her teasing voice. Tsukune couldn't fully keep up with her voice. There was eerie whispers in the background, the sound of many people chattering away about things he could not make out, yet there was nobody around. Was she causing all this noise? Or was it all just an illusion she had created to frighten him?

Everything had started to become black, the shadows began to seep out of their hiding spots, engulfing every open area that contained light. The Black Devil watched motionlessly from the shadows, like a she-wolf stalking her prey. Her eyes began to glow a blood red, her pupils becoming slits like those of a cat. And he was the helpless mouse, caught in her trap.

"I know who you are.." Tsukune responded aloud as he closed his eyes using his youki sensor to try to sense her location. He could hear a small chuckle in the background which then began pacing around him.

"_Is that so?_"

"How can I not know about the infamous Black Devil, Akua Shuzen?" Tsukune felt a spark of youki being released a couple of steps ahead of him, near a window. He had plucked a string, and had gotten a reaction out of her. Akua hadn't bothered to escape his approach, it seemed that she had allowed herself to be revealed when he had spoken about her nickname. There Akua stood by a window, in all her glory before him, she was looking outside the shadows hugging her tightly as the droplets of rain fell to the ground and became one with the earth below them.

Akua's head then slowly turned around to looked at Tsukune's. "Then you know that you should stay away from me, Aono Tsukune." Her thirsty, red eyes pierced his own harmless orbs. She strutted his way, making him take big steps back as he began feeling a large killing intent coming from her. Akua's lips turned into a smirked knowing when his back had bumped into the wall, she had cornered him and he had nowhere to go. "Don't try anything, Tsukune, because you _will _regret it." Akua took her slender index finger and traced her neck, allowing her nail to lightly cut and draw blood, she seductively brought her finger up to her soft pink lips and lapped the blood from her finger. Tsukune gulped, what a mess he'd gotten himself in to.

"I understand..." He said cautiously, keeping his whole body aware of Akua's tricks.

Akua grabbed his collar, bringing his face closer to hers. "Good, now let's have a go have a nice_ talk_..." Her poisonous eyes becoming a black absence of color was the last thing he saw before he was pulled into the shadows with her.

**Authors Note:**

_Hello once again guys! I really hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, it was pretty fun to write, but once more it's a filler. Sorry! Haha, they're essential when writing this type of story, especially the path I'm taking it. I hope you liked it, and feedback is much appreciated. I hope you guys have a wonderful week, and hopefully this chapter will be a good way to begin the long week._

Lots of credit to my wonderful friend Layla (_**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**__)__ for helping me get this chapter up and running._

**- Queen of Cellos  
**


	6. Crossroads

**Chapter 6: **Crossroads

"Let's go." Akua strictly ordered, rushing the younger boy into the vehicle. Tsukune stumbled to the car, as he was being pushed hard by Akua's strong hand. A loud thud was heard as his body made contact with the metal and the glass on the outside of the car. Tsukune winced silently pushing himself away from the glass and stepping in front of Akua, hurrying to open the car.

Exactly how did he get into this sticky situation? Tsukune wondered to himself.

Akua had told him that she'd been keeping tabs on him ever since he'd gotten to the mansion, and that he had smelled of 'foul play' according to her. She lurked in the shadows when Akasha had urged Tsukune to meet her daughter, Moka. Akua had pounced into action. By the time that Akasha had gone inside the room and Tsukune had had that small chat with Gin, Akua ended up eavesdropping on everything. The Black Devil then devised a plan to get him to talk or he would get hurt, even though he would obviously choose to talk. Tsukune hoped that her misunderstanding would be cleared up once they went to the rendezvous point: his house.

Tsukune opened the car and motioned for Akua to go on inside. "No, idiot, we're not going in that cardboard box of yours." She said in a sarcastic tone and rolled her eyes at him, putting a hand on her hips and pointing to the cars parked behind his. With his eyes, Tsukune traced the air where her finger pointed to, indicating it was the car in the middle. It was a vehicle fit for two people, a sports car. "We're going in that."

Tsukune looked at Akua in disbelief. He raised a brow as he looked at her. "We're going," Tsukune in bewilderment pointed his finger, aligning his with where she was pointing at. "In that?" The thing he pointed to was a black sports car. Even the lights seemed black, there seemed to be no color on the exterior but that. It was impressive. It gleamed a bit in the dim lighting of the outside.

Akua looked at him one more time before she spoke. "Yes. Now come, let's not keep anyone waiting." Then she began her walk to the black vehicle. _Of course the car would be that color. It's always that color._ Tsukune thought it was much befitting for a person as dark as Akua.

Tsukune briskly walked over to keep up with Akua and turned his head to face her. "Do you have the keys?" He questioned carefully looking at her hands. He didn't know how responsible she would be with a car, being the Black Devil.

Akua raised her brow at him, and retorted sarcastically. "It's my car, of course I have the key." Tsukune looked away, feeling dumb for his silly question. It was _Akua._ Of course she'd be prepared. Akua's tone went from sarcastic to annoyed. "Now, stop talking so much and lets go." They reached the car and Akua calmly slid the key into the door. She climbed in one foot by the other, letting her black shoes show. Tsukune walked over to the passenger side and slumped in. He quickly closed the car door. Akua slid the keys into the ignition and let the engine begin humming.

**X**

"Yahoo! Today feels wonderful!" Kurumu sighed delightfully as she stretched, looking up at the upper levels of the mall, her purse swayed on her left forearm while a shopping bag hung on both of her hand. Mizore eyed her best friend up and down, her lollipop swirling around in her mouth, she quietly nodded her head while making a small noise, happily agreeing with her. Today was a girls day, and when it was a girls day nothing could get in the way to stop it from occurring. It was a time off that they took each month to hang out with each other, a special day to just blow steam off and just have as much as possible. They had started this little event when Mizore had began to complain about not doing anything and being stuck at home, exasperated and distressed from the boredom that had gathered up inside her.

The Yuki-Onna looked at all the bags in her hand, her and Kurumu had shopped all day and now it was finally time to leave and go watch a movie, or go to a bar. Either one was fine with Mizore. She lifted the bags up, attempting to cross her arms. "Where to now, Kurumu?" She said in her usual tender voice.

Kurumu looked over at Mizore and smiled. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. "The stars, lets move!" She said raising her fist in the air and bouncing happily.

At that moment both of their cell phones began to ring vibrantly in their bags. Kurumu dropped the bags in her hands on a bench nearby, Mizore following her same steps. They both shuffled through their bags, trying to find their phones in the mess they called their purses. It seemed as if the universe was inside those little bags and black holes had sucked away everything that was important to them. Both of them searched frantically until they found their phones, just in the knick of time.

Kurumu points to her screen and raises her brow. _What does this lolicon want? _"It's Haiji." She comments in a low, confused tone. Both of the girls picked up the phone, answering to the crows call. They eyed each other as they heard the masculine voice that belonged to their friend.  
**  
**"Hello?" His voice came out perfectly. There had been a hint of concern, and disbelief in his voice, but it was strong and commanding as usual.

Mizore had rolled her serene blue eyes, and removed her phone from her ear, putting her own phone on speaker. Kurumu had left it on her ear but she had began to focus more on Mizore's phone rather than hers. Then Kurumu picked up her purse and put it back on her forearm.

"Yes, Haiji, what could you possibly want today?" Kurumu asked. Well this was certainly unexpected, she had made sure to send out a word ahead of time to people who didn't know that today was her day off, and she was pretty sure she had sent him a text telling him not to fuck with her day. Kurumu looked at her nails, examining the beautiful manicure they had done to her little babies, she slightly smiled, but it had vanished as soon as it had arrived. She felt her purse sliding down her arm which she fixed in a whim. She felt bothered by the small annoyance. She then turned her body to Mizore, cocking her head to the side to hold everything in place.

Mizore yawned, feeling tired from the activities they had done. She began to stretch knowing that it would take a while for the tengu to make out words, but she was proved wrong once he had began speaking in the middle of her stretching.  
"Everyone: Code Flight." The line hung up with a very soft click, it had been quick and vague. Haiji barely did things like this. Tsukune was the one who called everyone else but he hadn't been the one that was calling, no, it was Haiji of all people, where was her precious Tsukune calling in to tell her about a mission or just to chat, if it was him she surely wouldn't have minded if he interrupted.

Kurumu closed her flip phone and threw it back into her bag. She turned to Mizore."Something is wrong, Mizore. It's Tsukune, there's something wrong, I can feel it." Kurumu's heart picked up speed, thinking about Tsukune.

Mizore looked at Kurumu with her dead cold eyes, flashing a bit of curiosity. "You noticed that too, huh. We should go get there as fast as possible..."

Kurumu spun on her heel to the exit. "Yeah, let's go." They began storming through the mall, their purchased items dragging along with them. They scurried to the exit, out to the parking lot only to be blocked by a large, black SUV, the tinted windows rolled down revealing a friendly face.

"Hello Kurumu, Mizore." Fang Fang waved at them from the inside, behind him in the drivers seat sat Ling-Ling who also waved. In the back sat Yukari, and Ruby which they quickly noticed because Yukari had stuck her tongue out at them. "You guys need a ride?"

Kurumu crossed her arms. "H-Hey! Why're you guys here?" She said in a confused voice.

Mizore swished her lollipop in her mouth before speaking. "More importantly, how did you find us?"

Fang-Fang shrugged the questions off, and pointed to the back seats. "Are you coming in, or not?"

Kurumu pointed beyond the car, angrily. "My cars back there, I can drive you know." She disliked them appearing on her relaxing day.

"Just get in, cow tits!" Yukari yelled at her from inside the car, her window rolling down. Kurumu went into action, pulling the door open forcefully her bags being tossed aside so she could choke the little witch. Mizore just calmly went inside the car, knowing that they would be riding it anyways.

"Come here you flat chested little shit!" Kurumu struggled to reach Yukari, as she was hiding behind Ruby, who was uncomfortably being pushed back. Mizore shut the door, kicking Kurumu inside and the car began moving, Kurumu blinked and looked at Ling Ling. "Hey! I was going to drive us there! No fair!" She pouted, forgetting about Yukari's comment. Which she remembered as soon as a pan dropped on both Mizore, and Kurumu's head. "Oh, now you've done it!"

"What was that for?" Mizore glared at Yukari, rubbing her now bumpy head. "Doesn't matter. You're dead. Come here!" Shoving Kurumu out of the way to throw a ice kunai at the small witches head, which ricocheted from the window and landed on Kurumu's face. A small waterfall of blood began pouring out of her forehead.

"Damn it, stalker!" Kurumu switched her targets, and began aiming for the snow fairy, attempting to corner her to the window but it was difficult with the limited space and all the people jumping in.

In front of them Fang-Fang and Ling-Ling are hysterically laughing, enjoying the comedy show behind them. And poor Ruby has to deal with being in the middle of all the commotion.

All of a sudden a certain zombies head lands in Kurumu's lap, it seemed as if Ling-Ling had thrown her head in the back seat to prevent them from fighting. It had helped because the girls in the back had begun screaming, and kicking the head from person to person.

"Good thing I can't feel this because I'm dead."

The echoing laughter of Ling-Ling could be heard bouncing off of the tunnel they were now entering.

**X  
**

Together they had arrived, Akua's car pulling into the driveway slowly, wary of her unknown surroundings. She eyed the house. It looked like a cabin, it was fitting, considering that they were in a heavily forested area. With pine trees lining every direction. The skies were equally as grey as it had been back at the Shuzen manor. It seemed as if every dimension was having bad weather, how _unlucky_.

Akua looked around a little bit more before turning to Tsukune. "Is this it?" She asked.

"Yes, this is a safe place." Tsukune pointed at an area beside the house where a driveway existed. Akua turned the steering wheel and drove straight in the driveway, parking parallel to the house.

"Aiya! What a party~" She said as she climbed out of the car and headed towards the house.

Tsukune climbed out of the car quickly then grabbed her hand to prevent her from going on any further. "You might not trust me now, you might not believe me when I tell you the truth, nor might you like me, and that's okay with me. I'm a stranger to you, but I'm going to have to ask you to not hurt anyone here." His eyes became soft, yet the burning for the safety of those he cared never left his soul while he gripped her hand a bit tighter. "Please, Akua, I beg of you."

She glared at his touch, which he noticed and let go. He quickly apologized and she didn't say anything in response, leaving Tsukune hanging and making the air empty.

Tsukune walked up next to Akua so he could see her face when he spoke. "These people won't harm you, they're my friends." His voice was sincere as he looked at Akua's face for an answer.

_They couldn't hurt me even if they tried. _Akua thought to herself as she glanced at Tsukune's pleading face, not saying anything.

**X**

From inside the house, the crew had begun to get comfortable as they were waiting for their friends arrival. It had felt like a surprise birthday party, but it was on a more serious note, without the birthday or the party part of it. It had felt like ages since the friends had seen each other.

While they waited for Tsukune, Gin had approached Kurumu, poking fun at her in a flirty way. He'd been bothering her for quite some time which had become noticeable from Kurumu's facial expressions, her nails had come out in defense, literally about to pounce on him for annoying her.

Yukari and Ruby were discussing magic, and spells with Ling-Ling and Fang-Fang, they were enjoying their chat of tarot cards and the living dead. Once more Ling-Ling had attempted to make a joke about how she was dead, but had ended up scaring the trio surrounding her, the chattering of their teeth being heard, pleasing Ling-Ling.

Mizore and San sat near the kitchen, on the island centerpiece, chatting away about sweet nothings, next to them Haiji began spouting comments about how cute San was, all the while just being ignored by them. And every time Haiji would open his mouth, San would become more and more uncomfortable. Mizore had sweatdropped not knowing how to handle the Tengu as he annoyed her, so she ended up throwing an ice kunai at him, hoping it would somehow help San from feeling uncomfortable around him. Of course that had ended up badly, Haiji getting up, his fists ready to fight, but eventually gave up in an instant, muttering under his breath about how cute she was. Mizore then ignored it hoping to erase the memory of him ever mentioning it again. Mizore paid more attention to San's words, continuing their previous conversation about a certain wolf in the room.

"Hey! Tsukune-san is here!" Ruby yelled while running to the window, smiling ear to ear.

Yukari raced over to the window and joined Ruby, letting her eyes rest on 'eye candy'; Tsukune. "Yes-desu. There's also someone else with him, I can't recognize the aura from anywhere." She said announcing her alertness.

Ling-Ling crossed her arms as she focused on the people outside, the familiar aura was not becoming so familiar to her now. She had forgotten who it had belonged to, it was on the tip of her tongue but she just couldn't tell who it was. Fang-Fang sipped on some water, not really sure about anything that was occurring around them.

Kurumu whipped her head around when she caught wind of Yukari and Ruby's excitement. Her thoughts went from killing Gin to Tsukune in o point five seconds. "What do you mean Tsukune is with someone?" She said letting her jealousy getting the best of her.

Yukari looked at Kurumu for a second then turned back around to watch Tsukune come up to his house. "Exactly what I said, Tsukune has someone with him." Yukari finished her sentence while the door opened, Tsukune coming through and his companion behind him.

"Akua Shuzen." Ling-Ling blurted out, her once fuzzy memory of the black devil becoming very clear. A long lost enemy had appeared._ But why?_

Behind Ling-Ling, Fang-Fang choked on his drink practically spraying it out, had he heard his sister right? His eyes darted straight to the door, answering his own question. His sister was never wrong and she wasn't going to be this time.

Akua smirked, playing along. "Oh my, if it isn't the Huang siblings." She could feel the two siblings get tense at the sight of her, and that brought her pleasure.

Tsukune raised a brow in bewilderment looking back from the Huang siblings to Akua. "Wait, you know them?" Tsukune asked, his eyes still darting back and forth.

Kurumu could feel anger and jealously flare up in her chest. She stood up firmly, crossing her arms over her chest which should have been physically impossible for her breast size. "That's not important!" Kurumu yelled from across the room, she pointed at the she-devil beside _her_ 'destined one'. "What's more important is why is she with you?"

"Yeah!" Mizore and Yukari said in unision, backing Kurumu up.

Tsukune held his hands up, sweating a little. "Calm down, I'll explain in a minute, Kurumu-chan"

Gin then went in for the kill, groping Kurumu's boobs only to get stabbed with her nails and receive a bronze pan to the head from Yukari. "This isn't the time for games, Gin-senpai!" Yukari yelled from the window where her and Ruby stood. The wolf sighed and nodded, trotting to his friend; Tsukune, and wrapping an arm around him.

"Are ya gon' tell us who that sexy thing beside you is, or not?" He said looking at Akua giving his 'sweet eyes' to her which in reality made him look like he was faded.

Tsukune gave an exasperated sigh. "I'll explain in a minute." He said looking at his friends. Each of them had a mixture of surprised, confused and angry looks on their faces. "She's friendly." He said again reassuring them. Tsukune then pushed Gin away from his shoulder. _Hopefully they'll understand. _"Let's just all calm down and take a seat, I'll go make some tea." He said quickly.

Everyone looked to each other, while they sat down in Tsukune's living room. The living room was a light wood floor with two tan couches and a dark brown coffee table in the middle. Another tan rug was under all of this and everything face a stone fireplace. It was the ideal mountain hangout.

Akua raised a brow as she sat down, noticing a large killing intent coming from Kurumu. It felt like it was nothing, just another speck of dust on her shoulder she would eventually brush off. She sat down by herself in a chair, facing everyone else. _It doesn't seem like she's plotting anything. _Akua thought to herself. She trailed her eyes until they reached the Huang siblings once more, Ling-Ling looked confused and Fang-Fang kept moving nervously in his seat. _But these two are really suspicious..._

Tsukune was still in the room watching everyone until they got situated. Kurumu looked intense, her cheeks were pink and her eyes were becoming the same color. "I'll help you." She offered, sounding angry, but looked more as if she were about to cry.

"Alright, Kurumu-chan…" Tsukune muttered in a humble tone, sounding thankful. Kurumu silently got up and followed him to the kitchen.

Once they'd left the living room, she had bombarded him with the same question everyone had been asking: _What is Akua Shuzen doing here?_

Tsukune reached for the tea kettle from the cabinet to his left, Kurumu reaching for the teabags from a glass container in front of her. She twirled them in her fingers while Tsukune was filling the kettle with water enough for the group. He ignored her question the best as possible so he could finish making tea and come back as fast as possible.

"We might have to make tea twice now that I'm thinking about it..." Tsukune rambled in attempt to avoid Kurumu's murderous glare.

"You're avoiding my question, Tsukune." Kurumu felt her heart tighten in her chest as she said the words.

Tsukune placed the full kettle on the stove which he flicked on and the water began to boil. He parted his hair out of his eyes, he couldn't really explain this to Kurumu, so it was best if she would just be left out in the dark until they were fully gathered. His hands grabbed the ends of the counter, the form of it leaving small lines on his hands. He opened his mouth, but he couldn't say anything, not to Kurumu.

Kurumu noticed his troubled face, but she wouldn't back down not when there was competition. He had inched his body to hers, his hand being placed on her chin, he tilted her head up slightly as he leaned in closer and pressed his lips against her forehead.

"I wont let you die. I promise." His words had come out but they had confused her, she was so eager to find out. _Why wouldn't he just tell her?_

Tsukune went back to the kettle, it was ready. He'd grabbed tea cups from the cupboards and began preparing the tea. Kurumu had went back to the group, grabbing her own seat by Mizore while giving angry stares at Akua. Tsukune had come out a minute later, with two trays in hand he went around to everyone offering the tea he'd made.

"Luckily there was enough water for the amount I was making, so help yourselves and if you want sugar, here." He pointed his head at a small container of sugar cubes on the tray which Yukari grabbed, helping lift his baggage a little. Once everyone had settled down he took the trays back to the kitchen and plopped down next to Akua on the empty couch. She had been sipping on her tea casually, until the nitwit sitting next to her had built enough tension and she just wanted him to spit out, it was getting really annoying.

Everyone shifted uncomfortably in their seats. "So why are we here, Tsukune?" Haiji spoke up breaking the silence.

"I'm guessin' it's a big deal, eh?" Gin crossed his arms, a brow arched and a sly smirk intensively on his face. He rested his face is his hand as he leaned on the arm of the other couch.

San had scribbled something on her new notepad, and held it up. "Tell us already, Tsukune-san!"

Tsukune looked at Kurumu first she was furious, if looks could kill he would be dead already, it was the first time he'd seen her so unsettled, Mizore was next she sat emotionless but had a hint of her own concern glinting in her eyes, Yukari and Ruby were using their powers to drink tea, the cups levitating to their lips while they drank, next to them Ling-Ling and Fang-Fang were bickering a little but stopped once they saw Tsukune was looking their way, they both began blushing which unsettled Tsukune as he returned an awkward smile back. He cleared his throat.

"I'm getting married." Tsukune finally let out.

Kurumu who was taking in a large amount of tea sprayed it all out, it was like a hose that went haywire, it had gotten all over Mizore, Yukari, Ruby, and Fang-Fang's face. Their faces and half of their clothes were wet with hot tea, but Kurumu wasn't paying attention to that, she was choking in shock.

"What?" San said out loud, her mouth dropping open.

"No way..." Haiji said after in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" Ruby said a little after, looking at Tsukune with deadly eyes.

Gin scoffed as he drank his tea. "You have to be shittin' me, Tsukune!"

"To who?" Fang-Fang said, as oblivious as ever.

Tsukune sighed, looking at Akua who was now smiling while she finished her tea, she licked her lips and looked at the group in mild amusement. Her small smile vanished as she put down the cup on the coffee table in front of them, she was intently listening.

"The Shuzen siblings.." He breathed, half dead. His expression was serious, while Akua smirked, barely containing her laughter.

"HUUUHH?" The group gasped loudly. "All of them?"

Tsukune nodded. He was stuck in the devils deal forever. He wasn't allowed to part with any of them.

"You mean that you're marrying her," Kurumu pointed at Akua. "And her sisters?" Her jaw gaped slightly, with a little bit of tea dripping down to her chin. She looked shocked, just as the rest, but her's was stronger and more visible.

Tsukune nodded again sighing afterwards. Dealing with all of their questions wasn't going to be any easy for him.

Ling-Ling who looked as if she was deep in thought began talking. "Akua Shuzen, also known as the Black Devil, she's an assassin, she's more powerful than any of us in this room, that's expected from the eldest daughter out of the four siblings. We don't have a chance against her, not even without our powers combined."

"You can't be serious." Kurumu paled. Thinking that she didn't stand a chance against her, shooting down her last bit of courage and certainty of having Tsukune.

Mizore dropped her lollipop out of her mouth. "That's.. Insane." Mizore mumbled, her thoughts in par with Kurumu.

Akua eyed the group apathetically. To her, this all felt like a show put on just for her. Their displeasure brought her even greater pleasure. "Aiya." She cutely yawned. "I didn't want to marry him." She said looking straight at Kurumu before looking at someone else.

Tsukune looked at Akua and nodded, agreeing with her. "I didn't want to get married to any of them, honest." Akua focused her attention on Tsukune. _Really?_ _He's not lying..? So he's not a huge pervert in heat.. _

Tsukune looked Akua into her dark purple eyes. "Akua, I hope your suspicions on me are cleared, this is all I had to do." He said calmly, releasing all the tension he had within him.

Akua let a small smirk appear on her face. "I'll trust you this time." She said kindly, and in response Tsukune smiled.

They all sat in silence for a few moments before a phone began to ring. Everyone glanced around for the source of the sound.

Akua had picked up her phone and answered it. "Oh my, Akasha-sama, what would the mistress like?"

"Don't play games with me, Akua," Akasha scolded through the other line, sounding furious. "I know you have Tsukune."

"My.. It seems like I was found out." Akua giggled, "Father gave me permission, don't worry so much about it, you're starting to sound like an old lady."

"Akua.." Akasha growled. Akua knew that she was definitely getting a talk down when she got home. But, that was to be saved for later, right now her priorities were to pick on Tsukune and his friends.

"Sorryyy, I have to go~" She sarcastically sang and hung up.

_Did she just do that? _Tsukune thought shocked by her conversation. How can she just do that to Akasha? _And without dying? _

Tsukune looked at Akua and began talking as his friends watched. "Uh. Well. I'm going to stay here for a couple of days, Akua... I'll let your father know..."

Akua placed her phone on the cushion next to the one she sat on. "Father already knows that we're out, it's unnecessary for you to do that he knows that when I go out I won't come back for a couple of days." She told him.

"Huh? Wait, what do you mean 'I won't come back for a couple of days'?" Tsukune asked, bewildered. _Where was she going with this? _

"It means I'm staying with you for the meanwhile." Akua stated. "I am your fiancee after all, darling" She winked at him teasingly. Tsukune twitched in his seat, feeling the girls' killing intent.

Kurumu twitched when she looked at Akua. Jealously that was an ember at the beginning of their reunion sparked into a fire. "If that's the case then I'm staying!" Kurumu claimed.

"Me too!" Yukari yelled out, joining Kurumu.

"Same here!" Mizore said, nodding her head afterwards.

"Yeah!" Ruby said crossing her arms over her chest and pursing her lips.

Haiji, Gin, San, Fang-Fang and Ling-Ling looked at each other not knowing what to do.

"I guess we'll be leaving." Gin laughed, the other four people nodding and starting for the door. They all got up from their seats and placed their tea cups on the table.

"Are you sure?" Tsukune asked. "You could stay if you want to..." Tsukune hoped that Gin would get the hint that he wanted them to stay.

"No, it's fine. I have things to do and I'm pretty sure there's going to be a blizzard by the looks of the weather outside. It's best if we leave now." Gin told him in response, clearing it out. He winked at him as if saying 'Go get em' tiger!', soon after they said farewell and left. An awkward group was left behind for Tsukune to deal with.

Tsukune sat back down on the couch after locking the door behind Gin and the other three of his friends. He sighed then looked at Akua who kept staring at him. "My My.. Aren't you quite the playboy, Tsukune?" Akua hummed.

Tsukune jolted when she said it. He leaned at the edge of the couch and rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. "I-I'm not, I swear!" He defended himself.

Akua smirked then yawned again. "I'm going to bed, where's your room?" Akua looked at Tsukune.

"It's upstairs, if you go down the hall there will be a door straight ahead, that's my room." Tsukune looked back at the other girls, while Akua made her way to the room. "You girls should sleep too. I don't have to explain where you need to go since you already know."

"Tell me why you're marrying that monster?" Kurumu said as she rubbed her temples, hoping to stop her developing headache. Being a jealous lover was hard work.

Tsukune laced his hands together and bowed his head down. "It's a task made by Issa Shuzen." He told them.

"So the marriage is only for a mission?" Mizore asked, twirling her lollipop in her mouth as usual.

"No.. It's actually for life." Tsukune said giving a soft bitter laugh at the end then looking up at Mizore, meeting her eyes.

"It's just like home." Mizore said aloud remembering the ritual they do back in her hometown, they betrothed each other for child making, she could understand what it felt like, but she couldn't necessarily do anything about it since it was already in action. Kurumu placed a reassuring hand on her friends shoulder which made Mizore smile.

"Tsukune-kun this means you'll be around a group of people who're more powerful than you are." Ruby commented, hoping that he understood the weight and danger of this mission he took on.

"You're like a sheep in a lions den-desu!" Yukari chimed in with a cheerful voice

"Thanks..." Tsukune said sounding a little depressed. He placed his elbow on his knee and his face in his hand and stared out of the window that was nearly the size of his wall, looking at the night sky, hoping to reassure himself.

"Ah! This means our covers been blown since Akua knows our location!" Yukari cried out.

"It's fine. I don't care much about this place anyway. It's just a house I bought a couple years back." Tsukune sighed. He waited a couple of minutes before doing anything. Then he got up and grabbed a pillow and blanket from a nearby closet and looked at the girls. "I'm going to sleep here, you guys can have the three rooms that are available, I don't sleep much in the rooms anyway."

"Goodnight, Tsukune." They all say as they part to their rooms for the night.

"Night." He politely mumbled preparing the couch. Tsukune cleaned up the teacups, and the trays left behind putting them in the sink so he could clean them the next day before getting into the couch to sleep. He grabbed a white shirt and a pair of black sweatpants out of the same closet he had grabbed the pillow and the blanket out of, it had been a closet for extra clothes he wanted to grab incase he was in a rush. The young man took off his jacket and pulled off his shirt, leaving the white tank top he had underneath on, he had unbuckled his belt and pulled down his pants quickly putting the sweatpants on and putting on the white t-shirt. He threw the clothes he previously had on in the same closet and closed it. Tsukune turned off all the lights and headed for the couch, he turned his back to the living room and he faced the couch. _What an exhausting day.._

**Authors Note:**

_Hello guys! Sorry for updating this chapter__** very**__ late! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. As I said before I'm sorry for not updating for the past 4 weeks (I think it's four? Or is it three? I don't know _;_;_ ). One of those weeks was spring break so I decided to take that small break, then the other three weeks left we were crowded with tests and homework, so I couldn't find time to write but now I have found some time, but soon I will have to do final exams so there might be a lack of updating, so I'm apologizing beforehand if chapters don't come out as soon as I've said they would (weekly). Sometimes they will be late and I'm really sorry for that, but I hope you will remain with me until the end! I really have enjoyed you guys' feedback and the feedback is really appreciated, it's really exciting to see what you guys think.  
_

_Lots of credit to my wonderful friend _Layla _(_**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**_)__for editing, and helping me write this chapter. She's really awesome, and I'm really glad she's helping me out so props to her! _

_Thank you guys for reading this chapter, and I will see you (hopefully) very soon!_

**- Queen of Cellos**


	7. Words Yet Spoken, Actions Yet Made

**Chapter 7: **Words Yet To Be Spoken, Actions Yet To Be Made

**Authors Note:**

_Hey guys! Sorry about that slight misunderstanding on the "updating" that was done, it will be explained at the end of this chapter. _

**_-_ QueenofCellos**

**WARNING THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS EXPLICIT SCENES THAT MAY NOT BE APPEALING TO SOME PEOPLE. VIEWER/READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.**

**THIS FANFICTION IS RATED "M" FOR A REASON.**  
_  
_**Now the story:**

It had been a while since Kurumu had been "asleep". The succubus had waited out a couple hours until she felt Mizore fall limp asleep next to her. Of course, the snow woman had warned her she would regret it later if she tried something on Tsukune later on at night, knowing that she would attempt to do something. But that wasn't going to stop her at all. He was her destined one for goodness sake, nobody could hold her back from doing something stupid as what she was trying to do at the moment.

Kurumu wiggled out of Mizore's surprisingly warm grasp, at first when the snow woman had fallen asleep, it had been cold but she lit up like fire as quickly as she fell into a deep slumber. Kurumu giggled to herself, her powers had finally started to come handy, especially at times like these. Now, all she had to do was sneakily tip-toe down the long hallway to the living room where her precious Tsukune was. _Flush! _Kurumu jumped in her tracks, and looked over her shoulder into the darkness, it was Yukari. Yukari was coming out of the bathroom, clearly taking her time. Kurumu knew that if Yukari saw her now she would be dead, and her plans would end instantly. Kurumu paused mid step so she wouldn't alert the small witch. There was absolutely, no way, she would let Yukari ruin her plans.

The bathroom light then flicked off, and the sleepwalking witch cautiously walked back to her room, her feet dragging with each footing. Her eyes were half lidded with the clear signs of sleep. Yukari dozed off halfway, her hand twisting the knob to the room she and Ruby shared. The door creaked open, her stalled body now leaning forward, falling to the floor with a soft thud. Kurumu sighed in relief, she didn't know if moving would have alerted the witch, but boy was she glad to have her off her back. That being said, Kurumu went to check on the witch just in case, to her surprise, she was still asleep. _What the heck? _She thought as she took a closer look at the weirdly positioned body of her young friend. She was lying down on her chest. _Lucky her._ Kurumu then proceeded to push Yukari into the room with her foot. Surprisingly, the witch's body slid into the dimly lit room with ease, as Kurumu did her best to prevent making any noise. She finally closed the door to the room when Yukari was far enough not to be squashed by the door then continued her mission.

Now there was nothing between her and her target. She rushed down the stairs to the living room, and blushed at the sight of her beloved on the couch, sleeping heavily, and drowned in his dreams. His body was like a board, but the only thing that showed most ease, was his expression. A small smile passed over her face. This was a place where she could slip into his mind with ease. The succubus smirked the closer she got, her soft pink lips playfully compressing with the thoughts of the things she could do to him without him knowing. Her tail came out on instinct at the thought and was immediately place on his head. The end had bloomed like a flower, and perfectly fit on his scalp, next thing she knew she had gone inside his uninteresting dream. Luckily, she was there to make it interesting.

Her mother had taught her tricks on how to do things like this, but she had become rusty after not doing this for so long. Kurumu had messed up at the beginning a little, his dreams became an endless pit. He began screaming and panicking. Then Kurumu quickly fixed the dream, grasping the hang of it once more. She controlled it to where they were in a bedroom, his form below her while she straddled him. Where he once was screaming, falling to his death changed to him flushed, moaning at the fact that she was grinding against him.

"Kurumu?" Tsukune panted between steamy, collected breaths. He was sweating bullets. "In my dreams?" The look on his face was nauseated, and confused at the same time. Kurumu felt his hands slide up the side of her thighs, to her hips, grasping them tightly in security. She yelped in shock and bent forward to push his hands gentler, but his lips had shushed her, the silence of the two indulging the room while they yearned for more than a slight touch. "Why are you here?" Tsukune whispered as he rose into a sitting position, his hands gripping tighter into her skin making her squeal in slight pain. His body wanted this, it really did, but this wasn't the time, and this was only a dream. A dream that shouldn't have happened.

"_Shh.." _It was Kurumu's turn to hush him, pressing her lips against his, her hands ran through his brownish-black locks, grasping them between her lithe fingers as she spoke her true feelings with her lips. She began deepening the kiss while keeping her hands busy with his locks, they were heavy, and long, he could feel the air becoming thinner and thinner the more they came in contact until she pulled away as if she knew when to stop. Kurumu bit on his bottom lip while they made out slowly pulling away with a seductive smile.

"_Stop." _Tsukune pleaded between the kisses. He wanted it, it was just that he couldn't. The boy pushed her off of him, sliding his feet over the edge of the bed. He tightly shut his eyes, concentrating, trying to find a way to get out of there before the woman behind him approached him and began going even further. And he did. Where he was once in a bedroom, there he was in his living room on the couch he slept on, but there was no Kurumu. _Maybe it was all just a dream._ He began thinking to himself, over and over again. But it kept on bothering him, and he began looking for a sign that she had been there, but there was none. When he got up to the room she and Mizore were in and tried to twist the knob to an open he found it locked and cold, as if it was meant to shut him out.

**X**

He was half awake, nothing he did made sense and when he tried to put it all together, it just became blurred, his head hurt. Tsukune took careful steps, but they had become sloppy once he started for the stairs. He would go to his room and rest, that sounded really nice, it would distract him from this hangover type of headache. He arrived at the unlocked room, not really knowing nor paying attention at the sleeping form that was already in the bed profoundly asleep, he slid under the sheets and drifted off himself. His arms slid around what felt like a pillow and he slightly hugged it, enjoying the warmth and sweet scent that it had provided.

The sun rose hours later, the blinding rays of light, seeping through the curtains of Tsukune's room. He sat on his bed and yawned, rubbing his eyes clear. He looked around, his head turning rapidly when he noticed that he was in his room. If he was in his bedroom, in his bed, then where was Akua? He suddenly saw a black figure from his peripheral vision and he slowly turned towards it, as if not to alarm it. The killing intent that was coming from it had exploded like an atomic bomb, if it had been 'calm' before then he didn't know what this would be. Death, maybe? A shadow was swallowing him and the bed, his eyes dilated in fear at what was about to be thrown at him.

"A-A-Akua… N-Now I-I can explain.." Tsukune put his hands up in attempt to protect himself and persuade against her rough actions. But she didn't seem convinced at all, instead her face was full of pure evil anger, a dark shadow cast on her own body as well while she held up a bookcase with one of her tiny arms.

"_Really?" _She spat through gritted teeth, her eyebrow twitching perfectly on par with her facial expression. Tsukune had never seen such a maleficent smile in his life, but now he had seen everything, and when the bookcase came crashing down he began to see his life flashing before his eyes. Regret began filling his every thought, and the words Akua had told him the first time they spoke echoed in repeat.

A loud **CRASH** was heard throughout the whole house, waking every person in the cabin up, footsteps came pattering and slid to a halt when they saw the scene before them. A bookcase had cracked in half on Tsukune, splints of the wood scattered across the room. The bed below him had broken, and a very enraged black devil was glaring at the boy while standing up on the bed.

"Well that's another way to break the bed, desu!" Yukari grinned pervertedly.

"Oh. My. God." Kurumu gasped frightfully as she rushed to help Tsukune out of the mess, brushing off all of the wood like a worried girlfriend.

Mizore sighed. "Yukari, now is not the time to be joking." Mizore scolded while she slapped the witch on the head with a cold hand.

Yukari yelped. "O-Ow." She rubbed the back of her delicately.

"Oh my. You know, Tsukune, if you wanted to do some S&M action all you had to do was call me." Ruby purred with a wink. She began blushing while she thought about the many, many things they would do. "I never knew you liked it so rough..." Drool dripped out of Ruby's mouth and in response, Tsukune only sat there looking dumbfounded.

Mizore walked over to Ruby and also slapped the older witch on the hand, her hands becoming a solid block of ice.

Ruby yelped with a blush. "Ow!" Mizore froze at the reaction, and walked away quickly, helping Kurumu with Tsukune.

**X **

"Tsukune, are you okay?" Kurumu asked, her voice breaking as if she was about to cry. Mizore had a more stern face, her concern for the boy obvious but she kept calm. Tsukune could handle something like this, _right?_

"Ugh.." Tsukune groaned in burning pain. The light in his eyes kept on flicking on and off, blurring each time he tried to concentrate on a figure. "I can explain…" He barely made out before passing out.

Kurumu paled. "Woah. Did he lose consciousness?" Mizore poked at his cheeks, checking for signs of his well being. He was still releasing small, subtle breaths.

Akua released a puff of breath. "He's a vampire. He can take it, he'll be up and running soon." Akua spoke up with authority.

Something flared up in the young succubus. She looked up at the black devil and spoke out. "Hey, you're the one who caused all this!" Kurumu yelled, pointing fingers at her.

Akua wasn't fazed and waved Kurumu's yelling off with one simple response. "Maybe he should've thought twice before coming near me. If he were smart and had followed my instructions then he wouldn't be in this situation." She shrugged it off.

Kurumu had wanted to attack her right there and then, but she knew better than to attack an enemy as powerful as Akua Shuzen. She knew it was a hundred years too early before she could even land a scratch on her, and fighting with her would mean instant death.

Mizore could feel the air becoming thicker and quickly attempted to calm the young succubus down. "Kurumu, he'll be okay. It's Tsukune he just lost consciousness, it's not like he's dead he'll wake up in like five minutes or more." Mizore gently put out, trying to help her come to an understanding before something bad happened. Kurumu knew that half of this was her fault, but how was she going to explain that she had gone into his head and twisted his dreams until it became what she wanted it to become. Kurumu wouldn't forgive Akua, but she would not forget.

The succubus looked around at all of their faces. Then back at Tsukune's sleeping face. "Alright, let's put him back on the couch." Kurumu sighed in defeat.

"I'll fix the bed." Ruby offered nervously.

"I'll help with the bookcase." Yukari gave a hand to Ruby; her wand coming up and the bookcase lifting up and slowly binding itself together.

Mizore and Kurumu lifted the knocked out boy and carried him down to the couch.

**X **

While Akua was busy with Tsukune, Moka had been busy with her own mother. Moka had began discussing the engagement, wanting to know more about how it would work, and what it was, trying to process it the best she could.

"Mother, are you listening to me?" Moka questioned her mother, the queen about how this marriage was supposedly going to work. She had never been married before, but she had been betrothed to some other prince which she forgot about. They met once but they never met again, he was a bore and she was interested in much bigger things, so Akasha called it off.

"Yes, Moka, I am listening." Akasha responded, boredom in her voice, never had she seen her daughter become so talkative, and questionative. That's when she opened up her phone, reading a message that had been sent to her. It was business, and it seemed urgent. Akasha knew Moka hated when this happened, she hated her absence and the loneliness, but these missions were necessary for the future, and the good of the people. It was all out of love. Before Moka could continue, when she opened her mouth to speak, Akasha interrupted her. "Moka… I'm sorry to say this but I have to go on a trip, it's in a few hours and I need to get ready for it."

"But-" Moka wanted to speak more. A disappointed look crossed over her face.

"I'm sorry, darling." Akasha reached over and gave her daughter a hug, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Your mother has to help out the people. A queen has to do her job." With that she got up and left, leaving behind a very sad Moka to her thoughts. And not good thoughts at all, they were lonely thoughts, those that wouldn't go away for days due to worry and the fear of not seeing her mother's gentle smile once more. She wanted to call out for her, she wanted to say that she couldn't go, but how was she supposed to do that without sounding selfish. Her mother was not only her mother, she was a motherly figure to all, a warm queen. Moka realized she had been reaching her hand out to stop her, but put it down once she saw it, her eyes fell to her hands going down to her sides. "I love you, be a good girl! I'll see you soon, I promise." Akasha winked at her, and waved goodbye which Moka returned with a half-hearted smile, full of sadness.

"Me too." Moka whispered apathetically, not being able to say I love you back to her. _Where would she go now?_ Everyone was minding their own business, walking around the castle with such comfort she thought she would die. When did she begin to feel so alone? Why now?

**X**

Kahlua sat on the side as she watched her mother grin at her perfection, she had been muttering to herself, the mad scientist inside of her becoming more apparent. Gyokuro's eyes glistened with pure adoration of her artwork, a tiny vial with a transparent liquid inside of it. Gyokuro pointed at a gas mask on the table in front of her.

"Put that on, Kahlua! You're going to need it." She ordered her sharply. Gyokuro had been walking around the room, trying to find a syringe in the heavily clustered laboratory, when coming upon one she sat the vial down on a stand and grabbed the one next to it, this one was a sky blue color. Kahlua examined from afar as she saw her mother injecting herself. She heard her muttering something about an "antidote", but she would wait until her mother was ready to tell her what she was planning. Kahlua got up and grabbed the mask, sliding it on her face and adjusting it into place where she could easily see and breathe. Gyokuro spun the transparent vial between her fingers kneeling down to the nearest air vent, she violently threw it inside and strode away with feigned innocence. A cloud of smoke disappeared into the vent as it was sucked in and travelled to every part of the castle.

"Mother? Why do I need this mask?" Kahlua had been touching her mask, trying to see if it was properly in place. Her mother went to her and placed her hands on the sides of her mask, the eyes were fogging but she could still see her mother.

"Kahlua, don't you dare take this off, okay? Mommy needs you to do a chore, and if you don't you'll be in trouble, and everyone you love will be in trouble as well." Gyokuro's eyes were hard and stern, the fear that Kahlua felt just by staring into them was out of this world. It was ungodly. "I will hurt everything you love. And I will hurt you. So don't you **dare** mess this up, are _we_ clear?" The Dutchess questioned with a sharp nail at her neck.

Gyokuro leaned forward eying her down, then turned to a laptop typing away in forbidden speed to someone, she couldn't see the name very well but she assumed it was the same person she had spoken to before.

"Yes ma'am." Kahlua responded meekly, and nodded valiantly in effort of pleasing the monster in front of her.

"Now here's what you'll need to do." Gyokuro paced back to the table and spread out a large paper, it was a blueprint of the house, and she was acting like this was a battlefield and she was her general. There were heavy marks on the paper, large red circles, X's of all sizes, and this was just the start. She had to obey her like a god.

**X**

Kokoa stood in the sparring room, panting; once more. She had been practicing for two days perfecting her new fighting techniques. Her forehead was beaded with sweat and her hands were numb from punching for so long. Kokoa had practice doing flips, dodging and avoiding fake blows she "received". For once, she was actually beginning to feel better about fighting. And whenever her eldest sister would get home she would be prepared, apologizing was out of her league! How could a powerful vampiress like her apologize? It would be a sign of weakness, and weakness was something that she refused to show; especially in front of someone like Akua. And if she apologized she would be humiliated by not only her sister but the majority of the vampires. She could never live a life like that.

Kokoa was making her punches heavier each time she struck the punching bag. She could hear it coming to its point of breaking and that made her extremely happy. All of her training had seemed to be paying off, she might not be as strong as Akua when she finished her training, but at least she would be able to land at least a punch, and that was all she needed to do, make her bleed. Kokoa smiled at the thought of her sisters becoming more appreciative towards her when she beat Akua in that spar.

She grunted as she kicked the bag, bruises becoming visible on her legs but would quickly disappear due to her healing abilities. With a final scream she kicked the bag with all her might, although it was on its hinges it still would not break. She fell to the floor and gasped for air, her chest rising and falling quickly.

There were scatters of feet outside of the room, as if people were running to or away from something. Even from where she was at she could hear faint screeching coming near the castle, she shook it off as nothing. She tightened her knuckles, clenching and unclenching her hands why did she feel exhausted all of a sudden? Normally she would get a rush of adrenaline, but now she was feeling worn out. She hadn't been practice as intense as she normally did, there it was again she began hearing the footsteps. Kokoa bent her head back, the door becoming upside down to her as she took a long look at it. _Why are they being so loud? _Now the steps were becoming too loud, she stomped her way to the door and opened it, outside she saw something that wasn't a normal sight at the castle.

Why were there other monsters in her house running around with guns? The group of men that ran past her stopped in their step, and turned back to her, guns aimed at her. Her emerald eyes widened in a sense of fear, but the adrenaline in her veins was starting to kick in. The men in black were wearing gas masks, along with bulletproof vests, their black shoes covered in blood and ahead of them was a small pile of bodies, containing three to four vampires that she had seen around the castle, while on the other side was another row of bodies about the same amount. The hallway had painted with blood, and washed in a wave of monsters dressed in black . But how had it become like this, weren't they unstoppable? She could take these guys on, no problem, they seemed weak anyway.

"Hello there little Missus." One of the three men crooned, with a lick of his lips. They walked closer to her, their lusty eyes already exploring her ripe body, she responded with a look of disgust but she decided to play their game.

"If you come to us without struggle, we promise ya' we'll treat ya' nicely, eh? Pinky promise!" The one to the right side, holding out his hand to her.

"Ah, so you guys want to dance with a little lady like me?" Kokoa cutely responded.

"Heh, yeah. We'll fuck ya' good til' we get tired, then we'll kill ya', but we promise to make it worth your time." The last monster boasted, patting his pants while getting closer to her. "So come on an' be nice to us." The man gripped her shirt, trying to lift it up, but while he had been busy trying to get near her he had already walked into her trap. Kokoa pulled out a knife from her back pocket and shoved it into the guys throat. The other two looked from afar as their friend was stabbed in the neck in front of them, they grabbed at their guns and pointed them at her menacingly.

"You fuckin' bitch, I'm gonna kill ya'." One of them yelled, and tapped his friend on his shoulder and began to shoot at her. Kokoa retracted her knife from the man's throat but it was too late for her to try to dodge the bullets, it was as if she couldn't, they were too fast for her. She had been hit in the shoulder and one brushed the side of her neck.

"Shit." She muttered as she clasped her shoulder, in haste to apply pressure to the wound.

"I told ya' you were gonna regret it." The same man walked over to her and kicked her to the floor, and slammed his foot into her ribs as she crawled on the ground. He flipped her to where he could see her face, the blood still coming out of her shoulder like a waterfall. The corner of her shirt had been soaked with it. And it slowly began to spread. The monster put the tip of his gun to the wound, making her scream out in pure agony. She felt pain. An electric shock ran through her body, paralyzing her from moving anymore, she could feel the cold tip of the gun pressing down on the bullet making it go deeper inside the bone. He shot at it again, the pain becoming too unbearable for her to handle, her breath slipped out of her with a bit of drool that was mixed with blood. Kokoa felt her vision blurring, the darkness consuming her and accepting her with open arms into an embrace and she was not able to do anything about it.

"See. All ya' had to do was follow my orders, and now… Now you're dead. You're not even worth touchin' you look pathetic." Were the last words she heard being spat at her face before drifting off to a dark void.

"Let's go, mate. We got to finish the bosses orders and clear the castle."

**X **

Akashiya Moka was curled up in her bed, under the sheets, avoiding all the questions her personal maid had been asking her.

"Madam, are you sure you wouldn't want to eat anything? You didn't even touch your breakfast earlier today." The maid began to ramble with concern. "Your mother would be concerned if you don't eat."

"I'm sure she would be." Moka responded in uninterest. The maid had appeared right after Akasha left, leaving Moka to deal with everyone in her presence. Moka knew that the maid was trying to do her best to fix Moka's mood from when Akasha left.

Moka jumped when she heard loud banging at her door. "Aren't you gonna go get it?" She said from under the sheets trying to make the maid go as far away from her as possible.

"Yes, Moka-sama." The maid took her time going to the door, but it was knocked down before she could get to it. An angry group of men strode in and looked around for the white haired beauty who was peeking from under the covers. She carefully slid to the right side of the bed to the floor and then under hoping that they hadn't seen her. Something was definitely up.

"Where is she!" The leader of the pack yelled for the maids attention. Her maid looked around the room, seeing that Moka had hidden somewhere.

The maid faked an exasperated sigh. "I don't know. I haven't seen Moka-sama since this morning, she must be in the garden taking a stroll." The maid tried to do her best to protect the location of Moka by going on about nothing, stalling them until they went away even if it meant being killed.

Moka heard a loud lash of a sound, as if a whip was cracked, from under the bed she saw her maid fall to the floor, her hand on her bruised, red cheek and tears in her eyes. They made eye contact with each other, but the maid quickly looked away trying not to draw attention to her location. The man started speaking again."I know you fucking know where she is, if you don't tell me.." He grabbed a fistfull of her hair and pulled the maid up to her feet. He stopped and raised his other hand and backhanded her once more. "You're going to regret it!"

"I-I honestly don't kn-know, sir!" The maid sobbed out, blood coming out of her mouth from a busted lip. Moka saw the maids fallen figure being grabbed and thrown on top of Moka's bed, she could hear fabrics being torn from the maids pretty dress and the door being pulled up and shut as the other men stood guard outside of the room. She could hear her screaming for help, but if she made one wrong move she could get it as well.

"No! Stop! Please Stop!" The maid called out in pain, but the man covered her mouth with a thick hand preventing any air or words from coming out of her mouth. Moka could feel the weight of the two on the bed, she saw a pair of heavy blue jeans being tossed to the floor the belt around the pants making a loud clanging noise as it hit the floor. The creaking sounds of the springs on her bed began to echo the walls, and with each thrust the man had begun to make the bed began inching closer and closer to her figure, and the maid began screaming louder into the man's sweaty hands. This continued for what seemed to be an eternity, each time Moka heard her maid screaming she flinched, she grew tired of waiting by and hearing someone that took care of her being raped. For a minute the movement had stopped, and the springs no longer made noises and a hand reached onto the edge of the bed in search of a sharp object, the man's knife. Moka shortened her breaths, a risky plan coming to mind. As soon as the scene ended it began again, more violent thrusts and springs breaking. She heard him stab her, she heard her last yelp, she heard her last draw for some type of air, and then she saw her blood begin to seep through the sheets, through the mattress and drip onto her face. Tears cascaded down her own cheeks, her screams being no more and her body becoming limp, but that didn't stop the man. He seemed to enjoy it, the death had made him more active in fucking her and as he did he let the knife slide out of his hands and onto the floor, onto Moka's reach.

Moka took the knife, slipping out under the bed seeing everything. The man didn't notice and she was glad he didn't, but he wanted him to experience the same pain she had brought to the person he had killed. Even if she hadn't known her long, nor treated her all that well she never deserved this, none of this should've happened to her. Her red eyes burned with the fury of an army, and her heart clenched in pain at the thought of not being brave enough to save someone. And she grabbed him by the neck, holding him in a lock his bare chest being an easy opening. And when she slid the knife into his blackened heart she felt better, but this was the first person she had ever killed, and he had deserved it. She took in the sound of him not being able to breath anymore, and the struggle to make up words, and as he tried to fight back with the little life he did half she remembered the maid doing the same, and hoping that this would do her justice in a way. Unbeknownst to her, she had been continuously stabbing the man multiple times, as if he were alive and he were experiencing the pain that woman he had raped and killed was feeling. In her heart she hoped he felt like shit, that he would burn in the pits of hell. But, she needed to stop before she lost her mind. Moka dropped the drenched knife onto the bed, her hands shaking with rage. Tears began coming out of her red orbs. Her heart sank at the sight of the scene. The door was opened by one of the men guarding the door. Moka could hear him screaming at her and the rest of the men to file in. She could feel them inching towards her but she slipped away from their grasp as they jumped to grab her, but not without getting a couple of cuts from lingering hands and weapons. She began running desperately, worried sick about what had caused something like this to happen. _Where are my sisters?_ _Where is mother?_ She could've really used her right now. She had regretted not telling her she loved her, because this could be the last time she would ever meet her.

**X**

Akua's phone had rung and she had walked out to another room. It was a phone from the castle, she could recognize the number from her house from anywhere. She picked it up without hesitation. "Yes?" On the other line a very shocked woman began speaking, her voice sounding almost dead.

"Ak-ua-sa-ma, is that y-ou?" The voice spoke with shivers in her voice, the air she took in came out desperate for more to come in as it wavered.

"Who's this?" Being very confused, she asked.

"I'm a loyal servant of the castle." She coughed dangerously, it sounded like she was spitting out blood. "T-There's no ti-time left for m-e…Th-The castle ha-s been attacked." The servant began coughing again. _Was what she was hearing really true? _

"Where's Akasha?" Akua pressed before the woman could die.

The woman paused over the phone, coughing; before speaking again. "Sh-She left b-before we we-re a-at-tacked, they're starting to l-look for her." Another fit of coughs came after this, sounding worse.

Akua's heart caught for a moment. "What about my sister, Moka?"

"G-gone. Sorry, Miss." The servants voice went silent as her life slipped out of her body.

The thought of her sisters and her family being dead haunted Akua. She needed to go to them even if it was a trap, she _needed _to go. She ran out of the house bumping into Kurumu. Before she could ask where she was going, Akua was already out of that dimension and into the tunnel.

**X**

Kurumu looked back at the unconscious Tsukune, he was beginning to slowly awake, he rubbed his head and looked around. His eyes then settled on Kurumu who stayed with him the whole time.

"Kurumu? Why do you look shocked?" Tsukune asked as if nothing had happened to him. Then, his phone began ringing off the hook. He glanced at the screen, then picked it up. "Hello? Mikogami? Why're you calling me?"

"Where's Akua?" The headmaster questioned over the phone. He seemed rushed to know the answer.

"Uh.." Tsukune stopped and looked at Kurumu for an answer. She quickly mouthed that she had just left in a hurry. "She left in a rush, apparently. Why?"

Mikogami sighed over the phone."Tsukune. Listen to me now. Shuzen castle is a battlefield, you need to grab Akua before she does something crazy. You need to go there and save survivors, don't try anything crazy and be careful. It's chaos." Mikogami informed the boy as best as he could, but he had only heard rumours that the castle and the family was in danger. Akasha's family was endangered and he needed to send help.

"Oh shit." He mumbled getting to his feet. Kurumu stood beside him, grabbing his shoulder asking him to sit down. His head throbbed giving him the realization that he had gotten up too fast. "I'll be there as fast as I can." With that he hung up.

Kurumu jumped when he hung up."But you're hurt. You need to rest!" She warned him, pointing out his injury.

"I don't care. If this were you guys I would be there even if I were on the verge of death, I would do my best to save you guys." Tsukune told her as he got dressed for battle, grabbing a bulletproof vest out of the closet. Mizore, Ruby, and Yukari scattered to the two. Kurumu nodded at his words finally understanding.

"What happened?" Mizore asked the duo. As they all raced upstairs to Tsukune's bedroom.

"Mizore, Ruby you're coming with me, now! Kurumu, Yukari go get help and try to get to the Shuzen Castle as fast as you can, there seems to be trouble." Tsukune said like an army general. He walked to a far wall of his bedroom and flicked the light switch that revealed a hidden, revolving door with a large rack of weapons. "Let's go." He looked at the group and smiled with determination.

"Alright!" The four girls said, all in agreement.

**X**

Akua had arrived at the front door of the castle, there were piles of bodies everywhere. Blood was in pools all around the ground, and the hollow screaming coming from the people being gunned down was enough to give even the grim reaper the chills. But, the one body that stood out the most was the one that was on top of the castle hanging through a spear. The severed head of the person on the tip of the spear gave Akua a fuzzy feeling at the back of her head. When she looked closer she gasped to her horror, her eyes becoming watery, as a rage began to boil inside of her. No wonder it was so familiar, it was her father. Issa Shuzen.

**Authors Note: **

_Hello guys! Sorry for the late update of this chapter! I thank you guys for your patience, and I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. I really have enjoyed you guys' feedback from the previous chapter and the feedback is really appreciated, it's really encouraging! I love it! I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. My finals are almost over, I only have around three or four small finals left I think, but I don't think that's going to hold me back much from writing. I will do my best to update, but school is almost ending and next week is really hectic, but after that I'm free and continuing to write according to the regular schedule (weekly). I apologize for that small mistake the other day, I was planning on uploading something but I changed my mind at the last minute realizing that I had screwed up. Sorry about that! Other than that I had a blast writing this chapter. And I hope you stay tuned for more.  
_

_Lots of credit to my wonderful friend _Layla _(_**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**_)__for editing, and helping me write this chapter. She's really awesome, and I'm really glad she's helping me out so props to her! _

_Thank you guys for reading this chapter, and I will see you (hopefully) very soon!_

**- Queen of Cellos**


	8. Awakened

**Chapter 8: **Awakened

"Father…" Akua breathed with a quiver to her lips, and began coughing out a small hysterical, dead laugh. She let out. Her screams came out, a stream of tears following in clad both sounding as empty and broken as she had been when her sister, Jasmine, had been murdered.

_How could she allow something like this happen again?_

_Why wasn't she more cautious?_

Akua had wanted to collapse right then and there, but, what good was it for her to do that? _Gods. _Her thoughts were assaulting her. _My sisters. _The thought lingered, but she was still stunned with shock over her father's corpse. She couldn't move. _**Move! Go. **__They need you. _The voice inside her head beckoned her body.She walked up the front stairs to the place where the massive doors that protected them used to exist. Now, there were only bits and pieces scattered around the entrance from the mass chaos that had occurred recently. Akua stormed into the castle, she felt her body shift into battle mode in a blood rage. Her eyes darted around the long hall. Armed men with armor covering their whole body, patrolled the halls. They pushed tied up vampires against the walls getting them all in a queue to neatly execute them all. Akua took in a deep breath and looked at her hands, they were slightly shaking. But, of course she would never admit that they truly were trembling in the fear of losing everything. Her pride would be at stake if anyone saw her hands. She took her other hand and clasped her fist to stop it from moving and looked up, her eyes becoming crimson with readiness.

Akua let out a loud roar that would make any human turn into a pile of bones. Her inner beast finally consuming every bit of her kindness. She had trembled once, but now it was the grounds' turn to shake in great fear beneath her very feet. It was the souls' of the grunts turn to fall down to the pits of hell, and burn in eternity. Shots flew once the grunts saw their enemy. But no shots would take care of such a sinister force. No. Not today, she would not die today. She would not die this way. Today there would be a blood bath, she would paint the walls red with their blood, she would sweep the floors with their bodies, and she would put their heads in spikes.

Akua moved with the wind as she battled. Knocking down one man behind her by cracking his skull open with a swing of her arm. And another beside her as he foot collided with his side, making him split in half. The floors cracked, and walls had begun to collapse around her. But she would take care of these fools. She appeared in front of one the guards and looked him in the eyes. Her eyes dead serious with killing intent. He screamed but stayed in place. Akua's hand came up to his hair and grabbed a fistfull of it. His screams became louder as she began tugging. She quickly removed his head from his shoulder, and his screaming stopped abruptly with a sigh. The sound of a corpse leaving its' body. A smile spread on her lips while blood sprayed onto her from the dismembered corpse, showering her in the red liquid of war. Akua had forgotten how many men were in the room with her, but that didn't matter. The men could run out of bullets, but she would never run out of the rage she felt, there was plenty of it to go around. Since, the roar had consumed everything inside of her other than this.

"Shoot her! Kill her!" The soldiers frantically screamed to one another, seeing which one would actually take the chance. But, none of them moved, they all stayed frozen looking at the blood splattered girl.

Akua's teeth glinted in the light that came through one of the shattered windows. "You can try." She uttered as she took her time slaughtering each of them. More and more blood painting the floors. It seemed like she was giving the room a makeover, only with their blood. She cleared her throat, but the burning sensation she had there would never leave. It was all that rage caught up in her, in the moment. Sending her spiraling out as she brutally murdered the men. She could swear that she saw her step mother from the corner of her eyes. She had been watching Akua perform this dance of death with the poor soldiers. Akua turned her head a bit more to look to see her. She stood cold watching her. Like she was watching a simple game. When Akua turned all the way to her, Gyokuro turned on her heel and let her back face her daughter. She spoke to a servant quickly, then walked off. The core of Akua's chest flared, the flames inside of her lit up reaching the coldest depths of her heart.

_Why wasn't she helping?_

**X**

Kokoa's eyes barely flitted awake. Her body felt heavy and tired. As if everything, even her will, had been drained out mercilessly. "I-I have t-to get u-up." Kokoa said as she came up on one knee. She shuddered in an attempt to lean against a wall, her knees felt weak making her fall down again, preventing her any movement, or any attempt to escape. Tears had welled at the corners of her eyes, making the bleariness disappear and clear her vision. The black blurs in her eyes came and went to different locations in her vision, but they would not go totally away. Kokoa faded in and out on the floor, different things appearing in front of her. "I'm hallucinating…" She heard herself whisper to nothing in particular, but she had felt her body shift, and move. Her green eyes tried to look, it seemed as if armed men were dragging her body to a nearby mound of bodies that looked vaguely of rotten cow blood. They carried her and tossed her on top of it. Her body aching as she hit the bodies. They moaned for the new weight that was put on them. Her nose was filled with the stench, she had never been so disgusted by something she had loved her whole life. "_Help…" _She crooned only to receive a blow to the face, knocking her out. Kokoa wasn't one to fear death, but if death was like this she didn't want to have any part of it.

_I'm gonna die, aren't I? _

She began to open her eyes. It was like when she began to drift in and out of consciousness again. But this time she had company. Something gentler than the soldiers. __

"M-Madam." Another dying voice called to her. It was a males voice. A weak one. "D-Don't give up just yet, you're too young to go." Kokoa felt something heavy being thrown on top of her, a sort of coat. "Me on the other hand, my time to go is now. I'll do my best to keep you somewhat safe."

Kokoa tried clearing her eyes, but to no avail. "W-Why're you do-ing this?" She asked the half dead man. This was the kindest thing she was received since the invasion.

Kokoa looked at him. It was just enough to see him. He was young. He looked maybe about his early thirties. There was a lot of blood on him, which gave Kokoa goosebumps. "Because k-kids sh-shouldn't be dying like t-this." He said to Kokoa. The man looked at the open wound on his stomach and covered it with his hand. Kokoa looked around him. There was a lot of blood around him. It was too late to try to do something, and the pressure he was applying wasn't enough.

Kokoa wanted to stay awake, but she couldn't. She could feel darkness pulling her down.

"I'm sorry." She said.

**X**

"Kahlua! Keep on firing!" Gyokuro Shuzen ordered, a finger pointing at a large crowd of vampires trying to attack them. "These loyalists don't know when to give up." She smirked, and walked behind the shooting Kahlua. Gyokuro looked at the crowd from behind Kahlua's shoulder, resting her hand on her body. "But you'll take care of that, won't you, darling?" She whispered in her ear, making a saddened Kahlua swallow her fright.

She stiffened and shot down more people. "Yes, Mother." Kahlua focused her shots more, each of the bullets landing on someone. Dozens fell if they were in Kahlua sight, the machine gun in her gentle hand vibrating her body. If she was a normal human, she'd collapse immediately.

"They'll all be dead sooner or later." Gyokuro paced around their barricade, taking notice of the war around them. There was a group of armed soldiers protecting the barricade, bullets flying through the air holding off the horde of vampires. "Look at them, trying to fight for their lives." She laughed, her arms crossing. "How... _Pathetic_." Her voice became cold.

Kahlua blocked her mothers voice out, the loud sound of the gun firing becoming louder than thunder. She could recognize people in the crowds that she knew, people she had befriended, but mother had reminded her that there were no _real_ friends. That the only real friend she had was her family. And, her only family was her mother. She was mothers little possessed doll.

"_**End them.**__" _Her mothers voice always found a way into her head. She had been the poison that was injected to her veins. But who would love her, if not her mother? She would have no one after this.

One of the vampires had managed to get into the barricade, the soldiers had immediately gone to action. Prepping their guns to execute this man, but it was Gyokuro who stopped them from killing him.

When she did, all of them turned and looked upward at her. "My Lady?" Their question lingered.

Gyokuro shook her head slowly, kneeling down she grabbed the vampire male from the floor and set him on his feet. He looked up scared and frozen. A grin spread across Gyokuro's face. It was much like of a monster who had lost it's humanity. She grabbed a handful of his hair and turned to the soldiers. "This one's mine, don't worry." Gyokuro examined him. The poor thing, he was scared to death, he was frozen in place. "_Oh? _Weren't you going to kill me a second ago?" Gyokuro asked manipulatively. She was going to kill him anyway, but, she gave him a chance. A _false _one.

"N-No." He gave a swift answer and his eyes darted away.

Gyokuro gave out a small chuckle. "_Oh_ _Really?_ Because it seemed that way to me, what would you be doing here if not attempting to kill me?" Her radiant voice had become venomous, accusing. Her patience with the boy was thinning. He looked lost and scared, and didn't say another word. "You didn't seem like you were sure a minute ago when you told me the answer. People who tell the truth don't look away, and certainly don't stammer." She grabbed his shoulder and spun it one way, and his head the other. A satisfying crack went through the air, and she let his body drop to the ground. "No blood. No way to dirty my clothes." She said coldly before turning back to Kahlua.

Kahlua looked down sadly, her chest beginning to compress. She had thought about her sibling, and tried sensing for her, searching for her but what she found was something faint, her heart hurt, her little sister, was she okay? She felt tears stream down her cheeks, they were warm at first, but had become cold, it was something she had come to be used to. _Kokoa… I hope you're okay._

**X  
**

The blood on the land, was endless. It began to dye some part of the soil turning it a brownish red. Bodies were piled all over the whole palace. The soggy air was filled with the musk of the liquid that was spilled from many vampiric bodies. The began to rain fall down on the land; the downpour washing away the blood towards the woods. Some creatures dared to come out, to see what it was, but even they were struck with fear of themselves dying.

Craters appeared on the castle giving it a look as if it were going to fall down any second. Different towers were hanging by a thread from the canons that were fired earlier. There were sparks of gunfire flying through the air, at least half a dozen fights were still going on all around the castle. The number of vampires had gone down by the hundreds, but even now there were masses of deaths going on, it seemed as if it were to go on forever. Lots of them tried to flee, only to have another party of armed men at the castles gates waiting for them. Just as the deaths seemed endless, the amount of soldiers felt the same. The soldiers had moved from the gates into the woods, camouflaging themselves with the trees, and waiting for them to take the bait so they could kill their prey.

The bruised sky cried, while the vampires below bled out and cried with it. The wind blew, as if trying to blow away all the scents of blood and death, but only the smell of death clung to the large stone walls of the castle. To commemorate, what had happened to the poor people. Trees tumbled down from their homes in the Earth, and the thunder grumbled while the lightning struck and clashed with the ground.

Everything became a disaster.

And there was no more order.

There was chaos. And it was the only thing that was left.

And the peace they once knew was gone.

Gyokuro and her henchmen had been heavily prepared for this chaos. Armored with gas masks and top notch weapons that could be only found in black markets. They were the deadly kind that took people away and never gave them back in fear of more pain and destruction. The others were fools to let their guards down, even for just a second. It gave Gyokuro an opening to attack them. They should have been prepared. Now, their leader was gone, they had nothing, nothing left to fight for. But they had something to defend. The home that they had, their home. A once united household, now divided. Arguments broke out, some tried to join the enemies, traitors. Without rule, this is what their home had become. A soon to be wasteland.

Men below screamed that this would be a moment in history, that their names would be remembered, they gave out a frightening battle cry and they died for what they believed. They followed each other into battle, and they all died. One after another, dropping like flies and being forgotten, despite their hopes.

Their numbers were now limited, only a handful remaining. They had been outsmarted, and outnumbered, they were weakened, and there was nothing left but to surrender.

Gyokuro stood watch over the remaining men and women, daring to step out of the fort and go to them, to confront them. They had been careful, and prepared to die.

"Hm?" Gyokuro raised a brow, giving them a cunning smile.

One of them stepped out of their circle, coming out in front of them and facing her. It was a woman, she seemed to be in her mid thirties by her slightly above average aura, but yet her youth was not failing her as she still looked as she were still a young maiden. Her face had been stern, and unwavering, her eyes grey and dim, and her breaths were long and restless, but in truth they were all tired.

Each of their flanks were already defeated, and there were no actual plans, everything had just been a mess.

The woman knelt in front of her, and her peers became shocked by this.

"Manami, what are you doing?" One of them yelled out of the crowd, clearly upset by her decision.

"What we should've done hours ago, you idiot. It's useless to continue fighting, all we're going to do is die, and all of this effort would become worthless, none of us will be remembered for this, and this is the only option we have available; beg for mercy." The woman voiced out. They understood where she was coming from, it was all true, and they followed behind her, kneeling themselves in front of the new ruler.

"She's right." A woman said afterwards, agreeing with their idea.

"Aye." Another agreed while he knelt.

Gyokuro felt powerful. They were bowing down to her power. "Oh?" She said as she circled the remaining troop of Issa's loyalists, the ones that remained inside would be dealt with later; harshly. "Do you really think I would accept you all so willingly?" Gyokuro said after she examined all of the vampires kneeling before her.

The woman with grey eyes looked up at Gyokuro. They were strong, but tired. "No. But we would be of good use to you." She suggested politely, then let her head bow back to the ground cautiously.

"Alright." Gyokuro snapped her fingers, and a pack of guards jogged to her. "Imprison these swine in the deepest area of the Pit." The guards went to work, grabbing the men and women that were left and leading them inside the castle walls.

"You can't do this!" They yelled.

"No! Why!" Their screams echoed.

"Not the Pit! Anywhere else but there!" A woman cried.

"Have mercy!" But none of their pleads changed Gyokuro's decision.

She snapped her finger again, a younger male came quickly to her aid. She lowered her voice as she spoke and leaned towards the male. "Make sure you don't feed the hounds, wait a couple weeks then release them where they're located. If any of them make it out alive, which I highly doubt, give them another dosage of this." Gyokuro grabbed a small vial she had hidden in between her breasts. "If anyone tries to escape, send them to me, they will be dealt with, got it?" She snapped at the male.

He didn't jump but he saluted her happily."Y-Yes, ma'am!" The young male chirped.

Gyokuro turned to Kahlua which stood behind her watching carefully. She walked to her 'weapon' and led her towards the entrance of the castle.

She grabbed Kahlua's chin gently and pulled it closer to her face. "Kahlua, be a good girl." Gyokuro whispered into Kahlua's ear while she motioned for her soldiers to the destroy castle with a swish of her hand. "I want you to bring me Moka Akashiya's head for me."

Kahlua didn't move until Gyokuro pulled away."Mother," She cried. Kahlua looked surprised at her mother's command. Nothing she had ever told her to do was as harsh as this. "Is this what you truly command?"

Gyokuro slapped her daughter harshly across the face, and Kahlua stumbled a step back. "Of course it's what I fucking command. Hesitate and I _will_killyou." Gyokuro made sure her daughter looked into her eyes, she handed her a gas mask before she attempted to go inside, and she watched as she put it on. "**Go!**"

Kahlua swallowed the bitter taste of regret down her throat, and rushed inside the castle, she looked for a weapon in the entrance but all she found was a katana stuck in a vampires corpse. _That will do. _She thought to herself.

Kahlua tore the blade out the corpses chest. "I'm sorry, Moka…" She choked on sobs while she started for the nearest set of stairs towards her younger half-sister's presence. The bloodied blade was trailing behind her on the ground as if it were heavy, a very eerie scratching sound emanated from it as it called for more death.

**X**

Moka had been trapped in a corner, the men that were once in her room trying to grab her now surrounded her, weapons up, ready to kill. No doubt she could take care of these two. She swung at them, legs and fists. They backed away, but even then they were once more coming closer to her. Their grins were disgusting, vile, it annoyed her to no end. At that moment was when the soldier on her right decided to attempt to tackle her. She narrowly dodged him but he managed to skim her shoulder with his weapon. Moka acted quick as his weapon fell out of his hand. She grabbed it for herself and began shooting the man in the back.

"You _bitch_!" The remaining group of men growled and slapped the gun out and away from their friend. Moka clumsily fired, startled by his roughness. The man grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her to the corner of the room, her body seemed unresponsive, she could take on these guys for sure, _what was wrong with her? _

The soldier snickered when he saw her stop moving. "What's wrong?I heard you were _quite_ the fighter!" His fingers dug into her shoulder "I _guess_ not." Moka was trying to push him away with all her force, but nothing would work. She grunted and bit into his arm, sinking her fangs deep into the flesh, she felt his flesh move between her teeth when she tore the skin from his arm. The large man screamed and released her to tend to his wound. "**Fuck**!" He gripped his arm in agony as they both fell to the floor the carpet turning a much darker crimson than before, Moka scurried to the gun. She felt strong hands around her stomach, her eyes widened while she looked down to see her dress turn a different shade, the burly man's blood being soaked by the cloth, he flung her over to where her body was facing him. His fists rose to the air, and Moka put her arms in front of her face in attempt to deflect them but instead he chose to punch her in the abdomen, she felt the air slip away from her lungs and cursed herself for not being able to act fast enough. Her powers were weakened, and she didn't know why. They rolled over to the corner of the wall beside them, Moka, harshly bashed under his fists.

"You're gonna **pay**, you worthless piece of shit!" Moka yelled, her voice becoming raspy from the punching.

The man chuckled, closing his fist and rapidly landing blows to her face. _It hurts. __**Fuck! **__Damn it all! _Moka grunted with each blow, but her screams were starting to come out the more he hit her, and it was making the grin on his face widen. _Mother, please help me!_ She cried mentally.

"I can't believe such a **weak** girl like you took out the captain, an' my friend over there." His fingers grabbed her face, and squeezed her cheeks in a harsh manner to make her look at his dead friend. "But no matter, you're gonna join them soon, sweetheart." The man shifted his weight on her and pushed her against the wall, with his left hand, his right hand working on his pants. "But only after I finish inside of you." Moka shook in horror as the man began to forcefully kiss her.

"_No!_" She squealed under his grasp. Her hand pushing against his shoulder for any possible way to get him off her. One of her hands pressed down by his larger one. Her legs jerked around as she searched for an opening.

"Aye, let out that _**cute**_ voice of yours, I _love_ it when girls scream." His cold, thick fingers touched her thighs, they slowly advanced to her panties, tugging at them, finally pulling them off. She screamed harder, tears threatened to come out. Moka bit her lip in hope to keep her tears in her eyes, but they came out anyway, her pride was being torn to pieces by the second. Moka looked around the floor, for the gun, avoiding any eye contact with his manhood. "Such a _cute_ girl shouldn't go to waste." Moka's hands began searching around the floor for anything she could, anything! She froze midway, feeling something foreign creeping slowly inside of her.

"No, don't, no!" Moka felt herself grow desperate to bash his head in. _Am I going to end up the same way as that woman?_Her fear grew stronger than before, she tried to push him away with her available hand but she was being pinned to the wall with a strong grip. Her eyes flew to the ground, near the mans lowered pants, around the belt was his weapon, a gun. "**Fuck. You.**" Her hand pulled the gun from it's socket and placed it on his temple, shooting twice. His body fell limp on top of hers, but she pushed him off of herself and kicked him multiple times until her rage subsided. She leaned against the wall, her vision had become blurry, she felt sick to her stomach, she felt a surge of something jolt inside of her and bile watered out of her mouth, vomiting everything up. She felt violated, and disgusted, but he was dead, and she only wished that he were still alive once more so she could kill him again.

Moka shook her head. _Pull yourself together. _Her hands tightened around the gun, she looked up and walked down a flight of stairs, to a lower level, for once she felt like she was going in circles, she hadn't noticed the castle she grew up in had become repetitive.

**X**

"Ugh." Kokoa groaned as her body ached

_Huh? _Moka squinted her eyes at the noise, only to see a figure of something, no, someone pushed against a wall, dragging themselves away from a pile of bodies. Behind them was a trail of blood, first it was on the floor, then it continued onto the walls. _This person? How are they even alive? They've lost so much blood. _She walked closer to the person, fiery red hair, emerald eyes… _Kokoa? _

"_**Kokoa?**_" Moka's voice cracked, yearning to know if it was really her sister, was she okay, was this even her? She heard the girl's sobs, and she felt herself begin to cry as well. She called out to her once more, louder than before. She needed to know if it was really her. "**Kokoa!**"

"Moka...nee-sama…" Kokoa groaned. Moka ran to her aid, seeing the bullet wounds, she gasped. Pain and anger flared up in her chest at the sight.

"W-Why aren't you healing?" Moka's hands trembled as she touched the wound lightly, only to see her little sister flinch at the touch, just as she'd flinched not long ago. But that was the past, and this was her sister, she had to be strong.

"Nee-sama, your face, you're bleeding too…" Kokoa fell against Moka, and her sister supported her. Moka attempted to carry her, but she had become too heavy. _Something is definitely wrong with me. _

"I'm fine, it's just a scratch." Moka replied, touching her face, feeling lumps, and blood streaming down from different parts of her face. "You need a doctor, Kokoa!"

"Everyones dead." Kokoa mumbled, tears slowly coming down her face, then coming down harder.

Moka's eyes widened and she pulled her sister closer. She was right, everything would have been under control if they were alive. "No…" Moka clasped her mouth with her hands.

Kokoa closed her eyes, she felt something malignant coming towards them, a sort of killing intent. _This presence… Kahlua?_ Kokoa looked behind them from where she felt the aura, her elder sister was coming closer. Tears ran down her face, and she dragged a bloody katana behind her.

"Run!" Kokoa yelled at Moka. Moka looked confused, but then realized what she was saying, she felt it as well. Moka pulled Kokoa's arm over her shoulder and supported her weight with her other hand as they attempted to run away. _Why. Why is she coming to us which such a large killing intent. _Moka wondered as they tried the get away as far as possible, but to no avail, Kahlua had caught up to them, and she had seemed to be unaffected by what has been happening. She had a sword in her hand, and was walking towards them, with tears pouring down her face harder.

"Kahlua?" Moka called out to her gently, questioning her actions.

_Sniff. Sniff. _Kahlua sobbed, as she closed in on them. Her sword no longer trailed on the ground but began skimming the ground barely.

"You don't have to do this." Moka told her as she slowly took steps backwards with Kokoa weak on her shoulder.

Kahlua paused to look at them. "M-M-Mother said I had to, I'm sorry Moka-chan." Kahlua wiped the tears from her eyes, but she couldn't stop crying. More and more had just kept running down her face, like a small child.

_Fuck. _Moka mentally cursed, she brought the gun up, aiming it at her sister, she shot, but with each bullet Kahlua came closer until she ran out.

Her older sister sniffed. "I'm sorry, Moka." Kahlua apologized, bringing the blade up above her.

"No." Moka set her little sister on the floor and turned back to Kahlua before she could swing, she mustered all the power she could and flung her leg at her elder sisters torso, it managed to throw her aside to a wall, she heard at least a bone crack, but now she could barely fight, she had become tired, but she needed to continue. Her leg ached, something that hadn't happened in a very long time, she had kicked so many people that she had forgotten the sting that came along with it. What bothered her the most wasn't the pain, it was Kahlua. She was wearing a mask. _Why._

Kokoa tugged at her dress while Moka pulled her up briskly and placed her on her own shoulder. They shuffled to the nearest room in the castle. _I have to get Kokoa somewhere safe, and the castle is no safe place at the moment. _Moka paused for a second to think about Kokoa. _The forest._ She looked up towards the opening. _The balcony. _They walked to it, the roof was in level to the balcony, so they climbed on to it, below them was the garden, full of shrubs and trees, something they could land on.

"Kokoa, we have to jump." Moka told her sister, not promising a safe landing. "We have to go to the forest, nowhere else is safe."

"Shit." Kokoa cursed under her breath. Her breath was slightly ragged and tired, her eyes half lidded, but she was alright. Moka leaned back, feeling the dark breeze on her body. She pushed off with Kokoa on her shoulder. They both jumped at the same time, bouncing off a shrub and rolling onto the floor. Leaves, and sticks stuck to their hair, Kokoa giggled, but then arched her body, the wound still hurt. Moka sadly smiled, and carried her sister to the dark depths of the forest. They managed to climb on top of a tree where Moka began to treat her bullet holes.

Moka sniffled as she tore a piece of cloth off of her dress, her sister was becoming pale. Although most of the bleeding had stopped, she had lost a lot of blood in total. She bandaged the wound, pressuring the side of her stomach so it would stop. "That's all I can do, I'm sorry, Kokoa, I'm so sorry." The once strong Moka was now frail, and scared, something Kokoa didn't see before, her sister crying real tears.

"Thank you, nee-sama." Kokoa watched her sister curl up into a ball beside her, she was warm. Moka had ran her fingers through her hair constantly, grabbing at it every other second she could, trying to figure out what she could do, and whenever she saw her little sister become hurt once more, she would bandage her even more, her dress becoming very short. Kokoa smiled at her, reassuring she was half okay, but that wouldn't change the fact she was bleeding out at her shoulder in two spots, and it wasn't stopping. "Moka nee-chan, there's something wrong with us." Kokoa had spoken, her voice shaking. "Our powers… They're weak."

Yes. Moka had noticed it too, and Kokoa had said it. They could no longer fight like they used to, nor heal like they used to, run like they used to, they couldn't do anything like before. "Yeah.." They stayed together for hours, until Moka heard a group of vampires yelling, and they were coming closer. She was sure that they would find them in no time, they were to kill them, she was certain. Moka looked at Kokoa, and grabbed her hands and placed them on her wounds. "Kokoa, I need you to place pressure on your wounds, okay." Moka looked back at the direction where the house was, the huge mansion was still visible. "There are people coming, they're coming to kill us for sure, I'm gonna go lead them away from us by running around and spreading my scent in different areas of the forest and the castle. I don't know if I'll survive considering my position, and when I'm gone I won't know if you will either…" Moka gave her a light hug, to prevent from hurting her, her brows furrowed and her eyes became teary. 

"Moka nee-chan… Please don't leave." Kokoa cried.

"I'm sorry." _I have to, to protect you. _Moka thought. With that she left, falling to the grassy forest, and running away, spreading her scent to whoever wanted to follow.

**X**

At the entrance of the tunnel leading to the castle a car sped through, and down the road.

"What the fuck?" Tsukune mouthed as he saw the castle in pieces, Ruby who was sitting next to him covered her mouth in shock, while Mizore looked frightfully from the backseat.

In front of them the gate was blocked by two large black cars, similar to the one Tsukune had brought to the mansion previously. Tsukune accelerated.

"You're not doing what I think you're doing!" Ruby asked, almost screaming. She touched Tsukune's shoulder and held on to stop him.

Tsukune didn't move, he only kept his eyes on the road. His foot pressed down on the gas slowly, then he rammed it. "I am, hold on tightly." They broke through the blockage, the front of their car was totaled, but they were still driving full speed. The drive was wobbly but was still somehow stable. Bullets began flying in their direction. They felt bullets pierce the car, breaking the windows and making loud metal banging sounds all around them. All three of them ducked down into their seats as they were mobbed by thousands of bullets.

"Tsukune, do something, I'm getting slammed back here!" Mizore yelled from the backseat while she raised her hand only high enough to throw ice spikes at enemies they passed by. She then leaned forward and looked up. The castle was only a few feet away from them. "Oh." Mizore threw herself down on to the seat of the car and covered her head.

"Ahhh!" They all screamed as they crashed through the castle. They managed to skid to a wall and stop, they had gotten out as soon as they stopped, small cuts visible on their arms and face, but nothing serious.

"You guys, okay?" Tsukune looked over Ruby and Mizore, scanning them for anything broken. "Nothing dislocated?"

Mizore sat up with her hand all ready for battle. "I'm fine." She told him.

"Me too." Ruby said as she pulled up from the bottom of her seat, coughing from the debris that began to fly in to the air.

Tsukune looked around, the walls were broken, torn down, and the staircase was almost totally crumbled. "What the hell is going on here?" He said as he kicked open his door, and stepped forward, not paying attention to the floor. His foot scuffled against something beneath him, making him almost trip on something. "Are those corpses?" Tsukune gasped, realizing that there were masses of bodies on the floor. The more Tsukune noticed, the worse it was. The rooms' scent wafted into his nose. The thick musty scent of blood was all around, and it almost made Tsukune choke. Ruby looked away covering the side of her eyes, and Mizore placed a hand on her shoulder asking if she was okay.

Ruby and Mizore then climbed out of the car and began walking slowly inside. They walked around, going deeper into the castle.

"This castle is a maze…" Ruby commented, praising the architecture. "It's so sad to see it coming down." She seemed to like the gothic style architecture that the whole castle was built in. Tsukune marveled with her for a few moments until Mizore touched both of them to get their attention. Sounds of footsteps quickly came at them. Running footsteps.

Out of a room an enemy charged at them, Ruby handled him, her grimoire opening and summoning a sort of spike to strike him down. The three were taken aback at what was all happening.

"What's wrong with these people?" Mizore spoke, kneeling on the floor to take a closer look at the armored man who was "Who are they?" He was dead on the ground from a sharp blow, but no blood came out.

"I don't kn-" Tsukune stopped in his sentence, from his peripheral vision he was sure he saw Akua running, chasing something, someone. He quickly spun around and began running towards her and the thing she chased.

Tsukune yelled behind him to Mizore and Ruby as he kept running. "Don't follow me, go ahead without me, and keep your guard up." He commanded as he sprinted down the corridor, leaving the two females behind to fend for themselves. _Akua? _He thought, he was sure he saw her, was his mind playing tricks on him?

Tsukune ended up in a strange room, a room full of paintings, he saw the figure he was chasing, and it was not Akua. It was something black, like a shadow. He cornered it, preventing it from escape, but it seemed to him that it was not his intent to run away. "Who are you?" He questioned it.

The figure cocked it's head, it's mask moving as he walked. "Me? I am the one who began everything…" He hissed in a slow, demonic voice." He disappeared and appeared in front of the younger vampire, Tsukune's face only inches away from the mask on the shadows face. "People call me: Masked King."

**X**

Mizore looked at Ruby, sweat dripping down her temple. "It's been awhile since we've fought this many people, huh, Ruby?" Mizore laughed softly while she lifted her sharp, ice claws up in preparation for battle.

"It sure has, Mizore." Ruby summoned some armor to wield, and a weapon, she smiled, hoping to show off her powers. "Shall we look for survivors once we're done with them?" Ruby raised a brow.

"Mmhm." Mizore nodded, moving her lollipop for the left side of her mouth to the right side. They charged at the enemy surrounding them, ice flew everywhere, and so did the armored men. They shot at them but the bullets froze in mid air and flew back at them. Mizore slashed at a queue of them, throwing them backwards, while Ruby had made them hover and slam against the walls. Some of the men ran, and managed to get away, but the few who didn't get to escape were put to the ground be the time they were finished taking them out."

Ruby gave out a huge sigh, and smiled proudly. "Alright, let's go!" Mizore hopped over the bodies, behind them was a frozen hallway filled with the guards they had taken out.

**Authors Note: **

_Hello once more guys! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, and the ones to come. Thank you for all of your support, and all the of the love from you guys, all the patience, and all of the feedback. Any feedback from you guys is always appreciated! The reason why I haven't updated in a while is due to the family problems I have been having, but I managed to get through the finals, and now I am back. I am changing the updating schedule a bit since I can't do it weekly now, so I will upload whenever I can, as quickly as possible. I am not giving up on this story no matter how many problems I will have, and I hope that you will bear with me, and follow this story until the end. _

_Lots of credit to my wonderful friend _Layla _(_**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**_)__she's the best thing that's happened when it comes to writing anything, and listening as a friend. I really appreciate her for everything she has done, and all of her hard work on this story, and putting up with my messes. Bless her soul._

Thank you for putting up with me, and thank you for reading this chapter, and my story.

_**+ jinxter365**____The answer to your question is: Yes, Tsukune and Moka will meet, and yes, they will eventually come together as a willful couple. _

**- Queen of Cellos**

_Guys, it's my fault that we haven't posted. I'm a lazy editor and I kept disappearing to Mars. __**Queen of Cellos**__ does most of the work with the timing._

- **Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**


	9. Assault

**Chapter 9: **Assault

"Mizore…" Ruby radioed her companion in a hushed voice, while resting against a wall. She peeked from the corner to see a tall woman with a weapon in her hand, she seemed to be striking down a person, chopping them up into pieces. Ruby had tried concealing her presence, the enemy near her was much more stronger than her and she didn't want to risk anything. "I think I might've encountered one of the sisters, but I don't know if she's okay…" Ruby said quietly hoping that the sister wouldn't hear her.

"Ca….ful...Ru...y" The radio began to release small static sounds, the voice of her friend was not coming through. She peeked once more but the tall girl was gone, her chest compressed feeling something approaching her from behind, on her shoulder a sharp blade rested, the blood from the last person that was killed poured down her shoulder to her chest. For a second she had forgotten that vampires had acute hearing, and cursed at how easily her cover was blown. Ruby was afraid to turn around, not knowing what to do.

"Don't move." Kahlua said coldly through the mask.

Ruby flinched, and Kahlua struck, but Ruby had made an after image of herself and she had already been standing in front of Kahlua. Ruby summoned a grimoire, releasing a trio of hell hounds to attack the enemy.

The dogs ran at Kahlua, the first one jumped on her, which she easily cut down striking it through the stomach, the second one had gone for the legs and had bit her while she had been busy with the first, the third circled around and went for her neck.

Ruby summoned a sword to wield and walked towards Kahlua. She swung to and fro but Kahlua had blocked every one of her shots. Ruby continued swinging with her blade at Kahlua, but none of her hits landed. Kahlua began returning some, swinging at Ruby who was much weaker than her, she would block them carefully and continue jabbing at her. They both continued their attacks while Kahlua at the same time handled the hounds with ease, but found that Ruby had damaged her mask. Kahlua stopped to analyze the damage and Ruby watched through hard breaths.

"My mask.. No.. Mom's gonna kill me." Kahlua sounded disoriented, and Ruby looked at her confused.

While Kahlua is distracted, Ruby had attempted to slip away into a room, she had locked the door behind her and barricaded it with a dresser she managed to push. Her breaths becoming shorter, and her hands begin to shake from the stress. She looked down at her leg that had been cut by the katana blade. "Shit." She shook her fear away to tend to the wound. It wouldn't take long as long as Kahlua didn't try to break through the door. She hadn't gone that far, and hopefully the girl was too busy worrying about the mask to even think about going after her.

"**NOOOOOO!**"

A scream filled the halls, and the walls of the room vibrated, she felt the floor shake as Kahlua ran down the hall. Ruby had tried to hide her presence but to no avail she was already trying to kick down the door. Ruby had tried to summon anything to protect herself but she found herself unavailable to do so. In no time the door had been shattered, and the dresser was pushed aside, and while Kahlua walked towards her Ruby found herself on her knees, collapsed to the floor.

This girl… She was sobbing… She was so terrifying. She was like a child that cried over pain. Usually a child would stop, but Kahlua didn't. She kept inflicting the pain, even though it made her sad. Kahlua lifted the sword and muttered a word to her, but her ears wouldn't function. Long ago as a child she had wondered if it were true if when you were about to die your life would flash before your eyes, but the last thing she recalled was the time she had spent with her friends. They had become her family. And this girl… She had cried, until the end while she squirmed underneath her, _why?_

"Ru…..yo….th...re?" Mizore had tried to communicate with her friend through the radio. Ruby only gave a small smile as she pulled up the radio to her mouth and didn't say a word. She held the button and put it against her chest.

On the other line, Mizore could hear Ruby's heart beating quickly. Mizore, confused listened as the heart continued, then stopped with the sound of tearing flesh, then the sound stopped.

**X **

Akua hadn't known where she had arrived at, this place, she's never seen this place before. _This place…? Was this inside the castle? _The castle she stood inside of was massive with stones all around. It was a dark castle that just seemed to reflect what was happening to her. She could only see small bits and flashes of light, but everything around her was unnaturally hard to see. _  
_  
"Gyoku-" Akua began but was cut off by an older females voice.

"I see you found your way here, Akua." Gyokuro had abruptly interrupted her call for her to appear, as she was already stepping out of her own shadows from behind a couple of stone pillars that had vines and cracks in them. Akua didn't sense her. Nor could she sense anyone else.

Akua slowly turned around to face Gyokuro. Her face was with a sneer that seemed to tease Akua."I'm assuming that you planned this?" Akua let out a nasty growl.

Gyokuro coyly put a finger to her chin, pretending to put thought into it and as if a light bulb went off in her head, she smiled then nodded and exclaimed. "Yes!" Her tone of voice was like she was speaking with a ten year old. Full of ignorance and superiority. That tone made Akua feel more aggressive, but she didn't show it.

Akua narrowed her eyes and looked at Gyokuro harshly. "Why? Why do this? You have no reason to do this." Then she took a step closer to the evil ruler. "How does this benefit you?"

The prowess in front of her had cackled at her words, as if everything that had come out were so, very wrong. "Are you blind, Akua?" She stepped out to her, cupping Akua's face with two fingers. "I've had every right to, have I not?" Gyokuro pointed her arm towards the darkness ahead of them, where screens woke up to illuminate the room they were in, they showed recordings of events from different days, months, years. She had been recording everything.

Akua growled. "How dare you. You monster. First you kill my father, then you go after my sisters-" Gyokuro grabbed Akua's arm with two hands and bent it backwards at the elbow until her hand could almost touch her shoulder. Akua clenched her jaw as tears formed at the corners of her eyes. _Why am I in pain? _

Gyokuro then grabbed her arm at her wrist and bend her hand inward. Snapping sounds came from her arm. Akua almost groaned but bit back the pain. She could feel the bones in her arm rearranging and the pain burned and ached at the same time. She yanked her arm out of Gyokuro's grasp and pulled it to her. Something was definitely wrong. She tried moving her hand, but only a couple of fingers could move. Pain seared through her arm. Akua bit an insult back in her throat. She stepped away from Gyokuro, caressing her arm against her chest. Her bones moved around inside her skin, deforming her skin and creating bumps where there shouldn't be any.

Gyokuro gave an evil grin. Her eyes were darker than before and the air seemed to chill around Akua. "Scared?" Gyokuro asked her as she took a step closer to Akua. As hard as Akua tried, she couldn't hide the fact that she was in pain. It was a burning sensation that she had never felt before. "Are you perhaps, feeling weaker?" She cocked her head. "Drowsy? Dead? Tired?" Gyokuro began laughing as she grabbed Akua's shoulder. Her eyes began to water. Her whole body was forced down on to her knees. Akua wanted to fight back, but she knew the horrid feeling would grow if she did. _Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. _Akua heard Gyokuro go, "Poor little Akua, confused, and alone." She laughed harder. "What would a mother like me do?" Gyokuro brought her hand across Akua's face. "Pathetic scum." She said as Akua turned around, surprised by the stinging feeling that was in her cheek. She could feel heat rise on the side of her face and blood trickle down the side of her lip. Gyokuro inhaled, taking a deep, long breath. Not that she needed to take one, anyway. "I'll let you in on a secret…" Gyokuro slowly, began twirling her hair with two fingers whilst turned around, she pointed upwards, towards the air ducts. "If the world is at chaos, the living are limited, what of the air that surrounds them?"

How else was she supposed to live, if not without breathing? She was no undead, she was no dead vampire. But she had already consumed the air. And so had the hundreds of vampires that had done the same. "You poisoned the air we breathe?"

"Mmhm." Gyokuro had nodded. She circled her, and watched her take in more breaths, then quickly hit the back of her head with her fist and knocked her out in one blow. "Let's put you where you belong, Akua, along with everyone else." The mistress grabbed the girls arm, dragging her out of the room with one hand wrapped around her injured shoulder.

**X**

"Masked King?" Tsukune snarled, throwing a heavy punch at the figure, the armor on the figure fell to the floor, a loud clang echoing from wall to wall while smoke had started filling the air, he could hear an ominous voice coming out of it as it cleared in front of him.

_Your destiny is one much more destructive than mine. _

It was something he hadn't wanted to hear. The figure had left a briefcase in place of where it had been, he carefully walked towards it and placed his fingers on the lock, but just as he hold it, it unlocked, a shower of images and documents pouring out. Images of his parents, documents signed by his parents, what was this? "No…" He gasped. An outline of the castle, there were notes about the attack, the dates on the documents had been written as years ago. _My family was loyal, how can this be possible?_ They funded this? _No. No. No. _He scratched his head, realizing what was finally going on. He became exasperated, a lump in his throat forming.

As if on cue, a woman he recognized very well walked into the hall he was in. The paintings that were once up were crushed on the ground, the floor almost crumbled, half sunken in, the cloths on the wall torn to pieces. Behind her she dragged the eldest daughter of the Shuzen family in clad, she froze in place, almost as if she wasn't supposed to be there in the first place, as if she had forgotten what she was gonna do before entering that room.

Tsukune gripped the documents in his hands, the papers crumpling, he looked behind him to see her, he dashed at her only to hit the wall. Gyokuro had teleported before he could ram into her and create any damage.

_Whoops. _Gyokuro had said. She dropped Akua on the ground, then began leaving the room. Akua was then left behind, her body torn and bruised.

"You **coward!**" Tsukune yelled to the palace walls. "They** trusted** _you_! And you _betrayed_ them all!" He fell to the ground, the combination of his voice and the rage in his veins not being enough to sate the distraught he felt at that moment. Then he focused on the girl on the floor. She had gone here, to help her family, he was sure. And now she lay there, barely alive. Tsukune skidded to her on the floor, his pants ripping in the process. "I'm sorry…" Tsukune pulled her into his arms. He knew that if she were awake, she would definitely murder him, but for what he was going to do, surely she would thank him, _right?_ "I'm sorry that my family had helped plan the murder of the Shuzen family." His rough fingers pushed aside her hair, clearing her neck from any strands of visible hair.

"I'm so-" He sank his fangs into her pale neck, the flesh soft under his lips, and her blood seeping into his mouth. "Sorry." Tsukune took his time, gently he injected a large amount of blood into her, hoping that it would give her the strength to at least come back to them, but even then it would take time. He tore some cloth off his shirt, and tied it around her neck to the point where it wouldn't be that tight, then he grabbed her, pulling her up and carrying her in his arms towards whatever exit he could find.

**X**

Mizore ran out of the castle shooting icicles behind her. She had cuts and scabs all over her body, but that was nothing considering everyone in the palace. Soldiers were filing behind her like a swarm of bees. Mizore followed her first impulse and began running towards the forest that lined the castle, right about the outskirts. _I hope I lose them._ She quickly thought to herself as she shot her icicles into the air, hoping that they would hit one of them, and dashed into the forest. _Get lost! _She thought as she began misleading them with a clone she was creating.

Half of them bought the bait, the others didn't. She ran, like mad. Death wasn't something Mizore wanted to experience just yet. The air blew against her face, brushing away her hair. The smell of soldiers got farther and farther away from her as she ran. _Did I outrun them? _She questioned as she continued running faster. Then, something caught her attention.

A red patch of hair and a small body against a tree made Mizore stop in her tracks. _Kokoa? _"Kokoa, is that you?" Mizore asked as she slowly approached the small vampire. Then, she noticed the smell of blood that seemed to filter the air around her. Mizore dashed over to Kokoa's side and looked at her. Her face was extremely pale, borderline death. She was bleeding from multiple bullet wounds in her body, and didn't respond to when Mizore touched her.

A trail of goosebumps went down Mizore's back as she sat down next to Kokoa and pulled her body on to her own. She carefully touched the wounds and sealed them over with ice to stop the bleeding. _Now, she's not bleeding._ The ice would melt of eventually, but her body would react against the holes by that time.

But, then came another idea. _What if they smell her with all that blood coating her body? _Mizore rubbed her hand around Kokoa's bullet holes and began painting herself with the frail girls' blood. _If they go after me, they won't find her. _Mizore continued until the musk of blood was stronger on her than on Kokoa. The poor girl wasn't even moving in her arms. Just to make sure, Mizore put her hand against Kokoa's chest. Her heart was beating. Faintly, but it was still there. And she was breathing, but most of it was shallow. She was alright, for the most part at least.

Mizore touched a part of the tree and ice began forming out like a giant, forming a creature that could hold Kokoa's small body. It was sort of a giant that had a hollow belly. It looked like an ice giant, but that way, Kokoa would be safe.

She carefully placed Kokoa inside and sealed her in. Nothing could break this ice barrier. Not even their bullets and missiles. Mizore then commanded the creature to get an army car and go to the Land of the Snow Fairies. There, she would be safe with her mother. She would know Mizore sent her by her unique ice design. But, there was Ruby. She was dead. She heard Kahlua's crying through the walkie talkie, then she heard one of her best friends' flesh tearing. She got chills when she thought about it, and tears began to water her eyes, but she quickly brushed them off.

"Go." She told the Giant as she began to run in the opposite direction of the castle, through the thick forest.

**X**

Moka panted as she ran. Her hair was becoming matted with blood and dirt. She was used to being pampered and respected. She had never expected anything like this before. Nothing compared to the sight of war and pain. She ate cookies and had great treats on a daily basis, but this made Moka want to sit down and cry.

Soldiers ran after her. They were clearly much faster than her, but she was much more cunning than they were. She could leap over cars that were destroyed and toppled over, and objects; like rocks; that she knew would slow down the soldiers, but eventually, they'd catch up to her. Then they're finally get rid of her.

The more she ran, the more screams of terror she heard. And the more blood she saw. She gagged at the smell, but swallowed it all back down. She _was _going to survive. For Kokoa and Akua. But, the biggest shock to her was Kahlua. How she tried killing her. They were _sisters. _Nothing could break sisterhood. _Maybe Kahlua was scared? Maybe she was forced? _Who knew, but she knew that Gyokuro would never let something like this happen, _right? _

Moka leaped over more and more objects to slow the soldiers down. But, they were finally catching up to her. They had figured out her pace. And, she felt absolutely miserable. With a last resort, she ran into a cave and climbed up on to a ledge. She hid and cowered in the corner, but they didn't follow.

She stood still for a moment, listening for any signs of soldiers. But, there were none. She took a ragged breath and pulled her knees up to her face. A couple of tears ran down her face, but no more than a couple, she was going to stay strong. She wiped the remainder of tears off of her face and stood up. She was barefoot by this point. The sharp rocks hurt her feet, cutting into her flesh and bleeding out. And her torn dress made her feel cold all over, especially with her wounds exposed.

She took timid steps out of her hiding place, and looked around. _What exactly was this place? _Then, her mother Akasha came into her head. _"Don't ever go into any caves near our homes." _Moka remembered those words well, but they didn't matter now. Everyone she cared about was either gone or dead. Moka walked slowly deeper into the cave until she saw a slight glint of light from deeper into the cave. It gave her an eerie feeling, but she didn't start running.

She hurried her pace to the center of the cave. Something was there. Something her mother didn't want her to see. And she was definitely going to see it now. Right as she had the chance. Then she saw it. More like _him._

**Authors Note: **

_Hello everyone! Thank you for reading the ninth chapter of this installment, many thanks for all the support and the feedback (which is very appreciated) you guys have given me. Thank you so much, my loyal readers, for your patience, for your attendance, and just being here. I'm really grateful and I cannot say it enough times (I probably have, but you guys are extra special to me c: )_

I will be writing the tenth installment not long after this, hopefully getting it up soon as well. I will also be writing another fanfiction, for which series, I don't know, yet, but I will be writing. If you guys have any questions, or concerns please feel free to message me, and I will answer you in the best way I can.

Lots of credit to my lovely friend Layla _(_**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**_) for editing all of my chapters so far. I thank her for her constant support, editing skills, and ideas. Bless her soul c:_

_Thank you so much for reading guys, and I will see you next chapter! _

**- Queen of Cellos**


	10. Lying Low, Part I

**Chapter 10: **Lying Low, Part I

Kurono, Kurumu wasn't having a very good past few days. And now the situation had gotten worse._ Who were these people?_ _And what did they want from her? _Her phone had no notifications, nor had she received any phone calls from anyone telling her about this sticky situation.

She had always liked men in uniforms, so organized, and manly, but at this moment she wasn't feeling it, this didn't feel right. The little witch that was by her side seconds ago was now gone, and their attempt at getting help was going nowhere. The men in the suits were tall and all with different muscular faces. They all seemed to close in on her. _Where was Yukari? _She stood there alone pinned against the wall waiting for help to arrive. _Why are they trying to jump me? _Kurumu thought to herself as she pinned her back against the wall and kept her hands open to attack.

"Kurono Kurumu, you could make this easy for all of us, mainly by allowing yourself to be taken, or you could make this difficult and we could kill you and dump your body at the castle." _Castle? What castle? _The leader of the group; a bald man with broad shoulders said. Kurumu had a hard time distinguishing between the men since all of them were large and bulky with the same faces. The only difference would have to be the skin tone and the hair on their heads. She made a mental note that bowl cuts do not fit bulky forty year olds.

"We can't kill her, we were asked to keep her alive." A strong female voice told the leader from behind. Kurumu had no idea where the voice was coming from, but it clearly wasn't on her side of the bet.

The bald men turned to her, looking her up and down. The main one gave a grin smile. "Alright, since we can't have any fun, then I'll just beat the shit out of you and take you to the castle." The woman appeared and walked in front of her. The lighting was only on Kurumu from what she could see, so her image was almost gone. Kurumu heard the woman crack her neck on both sides, but gave her a gentle smile that was only visible with the gleaming light glistening off of her teeth.

"You can try. Bitch." Kurumu chuckled, something sinister beginning to overwhelm her body. Her dainty her fingernails became something not so dainty, but claws. The back of her shirt tore and her wings appeared out of nowhere, giant and black with a talon at the end of the main joint. She flew up high, stretching out the lengths of her bat-like wings, from above they were mere ants and she was a predator. "Hah!" Kurumu crossed her arms mid air, and glared at them with confidence.

Those below her only stared above in astonishment, their mouths hanging wide open only to be shut close by the loud smack their leader gave a couple of them and signaled for them to the car where they grabbed guns and began shooting upwards. "Flap your wings, little bird. Let's see for how long you can fly with holes through those." One of them yelled.

Kurumu's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, she swooped down and slicing at them, the fastest she could, from the corner of her eyes she saw as they flew back, blood splattering. The shots stopped for a second, as they checked their numbers, but they came back as fast as they stopped, she attempted to dodge the storms they brought at first it was easy, but it had gotten tiresome. She swooped down below and began swinging at them, the first person she encountered had their gun. She sliced it away, along with their hand. He stepped back and screamed, holding the bloody stub, crashing into another. The next person had managed to create a scrape her in the leg. She angrily retaliated by taking his whole leg instead. Slicing it off with one singular movement.

Behind her was the woman, the true leader of the pack. Kurumu couldn't tell what she looked like at all through this time since the darkness around her was so great. The woman charged at her with the gun, smacking her across the face with the heavy weapon. The white ivory end of the gun was now tinged with a little bit of red. Kurumu's head spun to the side and her fell to her knees on the floor causing her to get a scrape. Blood dripped out of her mouth and her cheek felt bruised. She spat out the rest of the metallic tasting liquid on to the ground.

"You're not so tough, Succubus." The woman spat hitting her again across the face. Kurumu reached her hand out to stop the impact but the gun had still landed on her, bruising her hand and her face. Henchmen began to surround her, holding her shoulders and arms, pinning her to the ground. "Don't struggle."

"The fuck I won't!" Kurumu growled, spitting the extra blood collected in her face. "Fucking bitch!" She kicked and pouted just as a child would; but the remaining henchmen came to hold her feet down. They made her stand, but she had began jumping and flapping her wings all she could. She would make their work hell.

"For fucks sake, knock her out." One of the henchmen suggested.

"We can't, she's needed awake." Another one responded in annoyance, only to receive a groan in response.

The woman pointed at the car, and they went, dragging her in, barely fitting her body through her kicking and jumping. They shoved handcuffs on her hands right before she went in so she wouldn't fight. The leader patted away the dust she had gotten on her suit from the fight, and wiped away the sweat from her brow. A smile appeared on her face, another victory.

CLANG!

"Jesu-"

The man to Kurumu's left looked back, "Boss?"

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Kurumu flinched at the sounds. She knew these very well.

CLANG!

"Ouch!" Kurumu exclaimed in pain, patting her head with cuffed hands from the bronze pan that had fallen on her head. "Was it necessary for you to conjure a bronze pan on my head as well, Yukari?" Kurumu cursed at the witch.

"Hai, desu. You shouldn't have done something so stupid like that, you could have waited a bit longer." Yukari stuck her tongue out at Kurumu. Kurumu slid her feet out of the car but still sat while the small witch ran towards her friend, stepping over the mounds of knocked out people on the way there, she helped Kurumu up and undid her cuff.

"Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem!" Yukari winked at her only for Kurumu to playfully look at her with a mixture of confusion and disgust.

"Do you know where these guys come from?" Kurumu kicked one of the unconscious henchmen over that was blocking her path, and looked down at Yukari. Yukari nodded, but the mood had gotten darker and her lively brown eyes became dim and black. "Yukari?" Kurumu nudged her now spaced out friend. Yukari didn't even blink. Kurumu looked around. They hadn't gone anywhere. She was still in the same place, her blood was still on the ground behind Yukari.

"Mikogami called…" Yukari started, remembering the headmasters words. "We're to go in hiding."

"W-What?" Her friend stepped back and crouched so she could be eye-level with the witch. "Are you sure?"

"The rescue went wrong, Kurumu…" The petite witch went on, the words slowing down. "Mikogami is rescuing Tsukune as we speak, he says that it was a massacre, what went on in that castle."

"I-Is he o-okay?!" Kurumu was filled with worry. "What about Mizore? Ruby?"

"I don't know." Yukari turned to walk. "But we've got to go before more arrive."

"Yukari?"

"Come on, Kurumu, let's go."

**Authors Note:**

_Hello guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry it's short and late but I'll be posting up the second part up soon, hopefully. I am currently working on another fanfiction along with this one, but I will still continue uploading constant chapters here, so maybe there will be two short chapters released here in like 1-2 weeks while there will be one longer chapter for that fanfiction or it could be the other way around depending on the feedback I'll get on the stories and the time I have available after school. This will be my main focus though, I promise. I appreciate all the love and support that you guys give me, and thank you for holding on for this long, guys. c:_

_Lots of credit to my wonderful friend _Layla _(_**Descendant-of-Blue-Blood**_)__for editing, and helping me write this chapter._

_Thank you so much for reading guys, and I will see you next chapter! _

**- Queen of Cellos**


End file.
